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New  Zealand’s\Poofters’  Put  out  Rightwing  Fire  1 


Nov.  30-Dec.  6, 1986 


$1.00 


y/OL.  14,  NO.  20 


THE  WEEKLY  FOR  LESBIANS  AND  GAY  MALES 


BIPAD:  65498 


Media  Dykes  P.  ? 


GayCommunityNews 

Vol.  14,  No.  20 - (617)426-4469 - ©GCN,  1986 - -Nov.  30-Dec.  6, 1986 

Gay’s  the  Word  Throws  Gauntlet  to  Customs 


DIRTY  BOOKS 

By  Marcos  Bisticas-Cocoves 

PHILADELPHIA  —  One  of  the  19  titles  returned  by  Her  Ma¬ 
jesty’s  Customs  and  Excise  to  Philadelphia’s  Giovanni’s  Room 
was  Men  Loving  Men.  The  book,  which  contains  a  photo-essay  of 
men  fucking  men,  was  deemed  “obscene”  and  “in  bad  taste”  by 
Customs. 

The  copies  returned  were  “well  thumbed  through”  and 
“grimy  with  the  oil  off  people’s  fingers,”  according  to  Ed  Her- 
mance,  co-owner  of  Giovanni’s  Room.  He  did  not  say  if  they  were 
grimy  with  anything  else. 

Also  of  interest:  neither  The  Joy  of  Gay  Sex  nor  The  Joy  of 
Lesbian  Sex,  two  books  explicitly  named  in  the  original  obscenity 
charges  against  Gay’s  the  Word  (GTW),  were  returned  to 
Philadelphia.  Both  are  now  available  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
are  selling  quite  well,  according  to  Paud  Hegarty  of  GTW. 

Hermance  said  that  Customs  may  consider  Men  Loving  Men 
obscene  because  it  contains  photographs,  while  the  Joy  books 
merely  contain  more  “tasteful”  paintings. 

One  title  that  was  returned,  however,  is  Show  Me.  During  the 
time  the  book  spent  under  confiscation,  it  was  censored  in  the 
United  States  under  the  kiddie  porn  laws.  Since  the  book  can  no 
longer  be  imported  or  sold  in  the  U.S.,  Hermance  is  saving  it  for 
archival  purposes. 

—  filed  from  Boston 


By  Marcos  Bisticas-Cocoves 

LONDON  —  Bristish  Customs 
has  its  hands  on  imported  gay 
books  again.  This  time,  however, 
it  hasn’t  confiscated  the  titles. 
Gay’s  the  Word  (GTW), 
England’s  only  gay  and  lesbian 
bookstore,  has  submitted  them  to 
Customs  for  approval.  The  book¬ 
store  hopes  to  test  the  criteria  used 
by  the  agency  to  ban  imported 
books. 

This  is  but  the  latest  battle  in  a 
protracted  war  between  GTW  and 
the  government.  Her  Majesty’s 
Customs  and  Excise  conducted  a 
series  of  raids,  code-named 
“Operation  Tiger,”  on  the 
bookstore  and  the  homes  of  some 
of  its  nine  directors  in  April  of 
1984.  Customs  oficers  seized  over 
800  volumes,  most  of  which  had 
been  shipped  from  Giovanni’s 
Room,  a  Philadelphia  bookstore. 

The  directors  were  charged  with 
importing  “indecent  or  obscene” 
materials,  an  offense  under  the 
1876  Customs  and  Consolidation 
Act.  The  Act  prohibits  the  import 
of  materials  “the  ordinary  man  in 
the  street”  would  find  “in  poor 
taste.”  Among  the  materials 
deemed  “in  poor  taste”  were  The 
Joy  of  Gay  Sex,  The  Joy  of  Les¬ 
bian  Sex,  Querelle,  Straight 
Heart’s  Delight,  and  The  Front 
Runner. 

GTW  was  to  stand  trial  on  Oc¬ 
tober  6  of  this  year.  But  on  June 
27,  Her  Majesty’s  Customs  unex¬ 
pectedly  announced  it  had 
dropped  all  charges  against  the 
book  shop  and  its  directors. 

The  announcement  came  after  a 
ruling  by  the  European  Court  that 
had  more  to  do  with  free  trade 
than  free  speech  or  free  love.  The 
Court,  which  is  the  judicial  wing 
of  the  European  Economic  Coun¬ 
cil  (EEC),  ruled  that  Britain  could 
not  bar  the  import  of  inflatable  sex 
dolls  from  Germany  under  the 
1876  law. 

In  particular,  the  Court  ruled 
that  the  law  violated  free  trade 


By  Nancy  De  Luca 

MODEM  CITY,  Computerland 
—  A  computer  network  which 
provided,  among  other  services,  a 
way  for  gay  men  and  lesbians  to 
meet  and  talk  has  apparently  fallen 
victim  to  Christian  homophobia. 

Quantum  Link,  a  national  com¬ 
puter  network,  provides  a  variety 
of  clubs  and  services  for  sub¬ 
scribers  with  Commodore 
microcomputers.  Subscribers  can 
get  news  and  weather  updates, 
communicate  with  other  members, 
join  any  of  the  30  or  more  clubs, 
copy  public-domain  software,  or 
get  tips  on  programming  and  com¬ 
puter  graphics  for  a  fee  of  $9.95  a 
month.  Users  connect  their  com¬ 
puters  to  the  main  system  via  a 
modem.  A  modem  is  a  device 
which  hooks  a  telephone  to  a  com¬ 
puter. 

As  of  last  spring,  there  was  an 
“Alternative  Lifestyles”  club  for 
gay,  lesbian  and  bisexual  sub¬ 
scribers.  The  club  was  officially 
sanctioned  by  Quantum  Link, 
listed  in  the  monthly  calendar  sent 
to  all  subscribers,  and  had  a  host 
who  coordinated  club  activities  in 
exchange  for  free  computer  time. 


agreements  between  EEC  coun¬ 
tries.  The  United  Kingdom  (UK) 
and  Germany  are  both  EEC 
members. 

The  Court  also  ruled  the  UK 
could  not  set  one  standard  for 
materials  produced  within  its 
borders  and  another  for  imported 
materials.  Some  of  the  books 
originally  seized  by  Customs  have 
since  been  reprinted  and  distrib¬ 
uted  in  England. 

The  ruling  prompted  Customs 
to  drop  the  case  against  GTW.  It 
further  complicated  an  already  ar¬ 
cane  law,  and  made  it  likely  the 
government  would  lose  its  case 
against  the  bookstore. 

However,  Customs  has  not  end¬ 
ed  its  screening  of  gay  and  lesbian 
books  under  the  1876  Act.  Most  of 
the  titles  orginally  confiscated  in 
Operation  Tiger  were  sent  on  to 
GTW,  but  19  men’s  titles  were  sent 
back  to  Giovanni’s  Room  in 
Philadelphia. 


The  club  provided  a  variety  of 
services.  Included  was  an  “Alter¬ 
native  Lifestyles  Room”  (Quan¬ 
tum  Link  vetoed  the  use  of  “Gay 
Bar”)  where  interested  subscribers 
could  converse  in  groups,  a  forum 
on  Sunday  afternoons  during 
which  topics  such  as  AIDS,  inter¬ 
racial  relationships,  coming  out  as 
a  teenager,  and  the  relationship 
between  gay  people  and  the  church 
were  discussed,  a  bulletin  board 
for  posting  messages,  and  a  file 
which  contained  information  on 
health-related  issues.  There  was 
also  a  separate  forum  to  discuss 
issues  of  importance  to  lesbians  us¬ 
ing  the  network. 

The  Alternative  Lifestyles 
Room,  which  operated  from  9 
p.m.  to  midnight  nightly,  had  a 
facilitator,  called  a  “bartender,” 
who  greeted  patrons  as  they  signed 
onto  the  system,  and  kept  the  con¬ 
versation  going.  Most  nights  had  a 
particular  theme,  such  as  teen’s 
night,  women’s  night,  etc.  The 
system  also  permitted  users  to  send 
personal  messages  to  each  other 
and  to  conduct  private  conversa¬ 
tions. 


Customs  informed  GTW  that  it 
would  henceforth  review  poten¬ 
tially  obscene  materials  for  import 
into  the  UK  on  a  book-by-book 
basis.  GTW  would  be  held  respon¬ 
sible  for  informing  Customs  about 
materials  that  it  thinks  Customs 
might  find  questionable. 


By  Stephanie  Poggi 
WELLINGTON  ,  New  Zealand 
—  Anti-gay  Christian  conser- 

News  Commentary 

vatives  here  are  gearing  up  for  a 
repeal  campaign  against  the  re¬ 
cently-enacted  Homosexual  Law 


The  only  problem  experienced 
by  club  members  was  harassment 
by  other  subscribers  and  dif¬ 
ficulties  with  gay  “bashers”  il¬ 
legally  accessing  the  system  and 
blocking  all  communication  in  the 
Alternative  Lifestyles  Room. 
Quantum  Link  was  generally 
responsive  in  cancelling  subscrip¬ 
tions  of  abusive  members  and 
attempting  to  eliminate  illegal  use 
of  the  system. 

Last  summer,  members  of  four 
clubs  on  the  Quantum  link  net¬ 
work  experienced  a  cutback  in  ser¬ 
vices.  The  Alternative  Lifestyles 
club,  and  clubs  for  Christians, 
members  of  the  military,  and  the 
police,  were  no  longer  listed  in  the 
monthly  newsletters.  The  groups 
were  also  moved  from  the  listings 
under  “clubs”  to  the  “news”  sec¬ 
tion  of  the  computerized  direc¬ 
tory.  Included  in  the  new  listing 
was  a  disclaimer,  which  stated  that 
the  views  expressed  by  these 
groups  did  not  represent  those  of 
Quantum  Link. 

According  to  gay  “bartenders” 
Will  Escobar  and  Paul  Langley,  a 
Continued  on  page  10 


And  that  is  just  what  GTW  is 
doing  now.  On  November  10, 
GTW  submitted  six  single  copies 
for  Customs’  approval.  All  six  are 
men’s  titles  selected  from  the  19  re¬ 
jected  earlier  by  Customs.  They  in¬ 
clude  three  books  by  Phil  Andros: 
My  Brother,  My  Self,-  Roman 
Conquests,  and  Below  the  Belt. 
Also  included  are  Mitch  Walker’s 
Men  Loving  Men,  Jack  Morin’s 
Men  Loving  Themselves,  and  Men 
in  Erotic  Art  from  the  Rob 
Gallery. 

GTW  submitted  “literary  test¬ 
imony”  with  the  books.  The 
“testimony”  consists  of  doc¬ 
uments  by  gay  authors  attesting  to 
the  books’  redeeming  social  value. 

The  books  are  being  imported 
from  Amsterdam,  and  not  the 
United  States,  and  are  therefore 
covered  under  the  European  Court 
ruling. 

Customs  is  not  expected  to 
decide  on  the  books  for  at  least  a 
month.  Should  the  books  be 
found  in  poor  taste  by  ordinary 
British  men,  GTW  may  file  suit  in 
court. 

In  related  developments,  openly 
gay  Member  of  Parliament  (MP) 
Chris  Smith,  introduced  a  bill  in 
July  that  would  subject  imported 
books  to  the  same  test  of  obscenity 
that  applies  to  books  published  in 


Reform  Bill.  They  pledge  that 
members  of  Parliament  who  voted 
in  July  to  decriminalize  gay  male 
sex  will  be  ousted  at  the  next  elec¬ 
tions,  and  that  law  reform  will  be 
overturned  and  decency  thus  re¬ 
surrected  across  the  land. 

But  for  all  the  bluster,  New 
Zealand’s  right-wing  fundamen¬ 
talists  are  running  out  of  steam  — 
even  as  the  New  Right  in  the  U.S. 
appears  to  be  gaining  momentum. 
The  16-month  defensive  crusade 
against  law  reform,  backed  with 
the  expertise  and  financial 
resources  of  U.S.  rightwingers,  ap¬ 
parently  backfired.  Not  only  did 
the  numbers  of  New  Zealanders 
who  support  decriminalization  of 
homosexuality  increase  by  the  end 
of  the  campaign,  but  the  Right  lost 
their  bid  to  build  an  equivalent  of 
the  U.S.  Moral  Majority  and,  per¬ 
haps,  whatever  credibility  they  had 
had.  s 

Lesbians  and  gay  men  attribute 
their  success  to  a  massive 
consciousness-raising  campaign, 
to  coalition  work,  and  to  effective¬ 
ly  playing  up  the  perception  that 
the  U.S.  was  interfering  in  New 
Zealand’s  domestic  affairs.  Bla¬ 
tant  and  massive  fraud  in  anti¬ 
reform  petition-gathering  by 
Salvation  Army  “God-squads” 
helped,  too. 

Law  reform  activists  do  see  a 
backlash  of  sorts  in  the  aftermath 
of  passage  of  the  bill,  including  a 
September  arson  attack  against  the 
Lesbian/Gay  Rights  Resource 
Center  in  Wellington.  Bashing  of 
lesbians  and  gay  men  was  also  on 
the  rise  throughout  the  duration  of 
the  campaign. 

Generally,  however,  lesbians 
and  gay  men  believe  homophobia 
has  diminished  and  that  passage  of 
law  reform  is  viewed  by  New 


the  UK.  Although  the  bill  passed 
its  first  reading,  it  is  not  expected 
to  make  further  progress  in  this 
session  of  Parliament. 

According  to  the  London  Gay 
Times,  another  MP,  Frank  Dob¬ 
son,  will  ask  for  full  details  of  the 
cost  incurred  during  the  case 
against  the  bookstore.  He  will  fur¬ 
ther  ask  whether  any  Customs  of¬ 
ficers  will  be  disciplined  for  the  in¬ 
cident. 

Finally,  the  union  that 
represents  the  Customs  workers  is 
asking  that  obscenity  laws  be 
changed.  Customs  workers  com¬ 
plain  the  laws  are  now  unworkable 
and  they  do  not  know  how  to  pro¬ 
ceed  given  the  chaos. 

Those  fighting  to  get  gay  and 
lesbian  books  into  Great  Britain 
are  in  need  of  help.  People  can 
send  checks  or  money  orders, 
made  out  to  Gay’s  the  Word 
Defense  Fund,  to  Defend  Gay’s 
the  Word  Campaign,  66  March- 
mont  Street,  London  WC1 
England. 

People  in  the  United  States  can 
also  complain  to  the  British  Am¬ 
bassador  about  the  continued  ex¬ 
clusion  of  lesbian  and  gay 
materials  from  this  country.  Write 
to  the  British  Embassy-Chancery, 
3100  Massachusetts  Avenue  NW, 
Washington,  DC,  20008. 

—  filed  from  Boston 


Zealand  society  as  a  crucial  victory 
against  a  dangerous  right  wing. 
In  fact,  the  blow  to  the  Right  may 
have  more  meaning  than  the  actual 
passage  of  law  reform.  According 
to  Bill  Logan,  of  the  Gay  Task 
Force  in  Wellington,  while  the 
criminalization  of  gay  male  sex 
gave  the  “background  for  oppres¬ 
sion,”  the  anti-gay  law  was  rarely 
used.  Law  reform  does  make  16 
the  age  of  consent  for  gay  male  sex 
—  the  same  as  that  for  heterosex¬ 
ual  sex.  It  also  decriminalizes 
sodomy  between  heterosexuals. 
Gay  male  sex  remains  illegal  at  any 
age  for  members  of  the  armed 
forces,  police,  and  prison  workers. 
New  Zealand  has  never  had  laws 
against  sex  between  women. 

Logan,  who  was  one  of  the 
organizers  for  law  reform,  told 
GCN  that  despite  —  or  perhaps 
because  of  —  the  heavy-handed 
support  from  the  U.S.  New  Right, 
the  fundamentalist  bid  for  power 
found  relatively  few  takers  in  New 
Zealand.  Logan  said  Christian 
conservatism  has  never  been  very 
strong  in  the  country  and  that  ac¬ 
cess  to  television  —  key  to  the 
Christian  Right’s  influence  in  the 
U.S.  —  is  hard  to  come  by.  New 
Zealand  has  only  two  networks, 
both  run  by  the  Labor  government 
that  has  shown  itself  to  be  some¬ 
what  hostile  to  U.S.  influence.  The 
most  highly  public¬ 
ized  rejection  was  New  Zealand’s 
recent  refusal  to  allow  U.S.  ships 
carrying  nuclear  arms  access  to  its 
harbors. 

In  addition,  the  classically 
broad  agenda  of  the  anti-bill 
group,  known  as  the  Concerned 
Citizens  Coalition  (CCC)  (“a  soft 
version  of  the  KKK,”  according  to 
Logan),  infuriated  an  equally 
Continued  on  page  3 


Pressure  from  fundamentalists 

Computer  Network  Axes 
Lesbian/Gay  ‘Club’ 


U.S. -backed  Xtian  Zealots 
Rejected  in  New  Zealand 


Page  2  •  Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,1986 


News  Notes 


quotes  of  the  week 

“Only  the  minimum  of  tolerance  that  civility 
demands  has  prevented  a  return  to  burning  at  the 
stake.” 

—  Fuori  (Out),  an  organization  of  Italian  les¬ 
bians  and  gay  men,  responding  to  the  Vatican’s  re¬ 
cent  condemnation  of  homosexuality  (See  GCN,  Vol. 
14,  No.  18)  According  to  La  Semana,  a  Spanish- 
ianguage  newspaper  of  Dorchester,  Mass.,  Fuori  also 
stated  that  the  new  document  does  not  "change  one 
single  comma"  of  the  Church's  doctrine  against 
homosexuality. 

*  *  * 

"Am  I  alone  in  hoping  the  day  might  come  when 
we  once  again  have  a  Ladies’  Champion  who  lusts 
after  men,  not  women,  and  wears  frilly  undies  and 
Chanel  No.  5  instead  of  Y-fronts  and  aftershave?” 

—  John  Junor,  of  the  Sunday  Express,  com¬ 
menting  on  tennis  player  Martina  Navratilova,  as 
reported  in  OutRage,  of  Australia. 


church  opposes  abortion  for  pregnant 
women  with  aids  (and  for  all  the  other 
pregnant  women,  too) 

MIAMI  —  According  to  La  Semana,  a  Spanish- 
language  newspaper  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  the 
Catholic  Church  has  charged  local  authorities  want 
to  abort  the  children  of  “mothers”  with  AIDS. 

Florida  health  officials  began  last  January  to  ex¬ 
amine  pregnant  women  for  possible  exposure  to  the 
HIV  virus  believed  to  cause  AIDS.  The  officials  said 
they  counselled  women  who  had'apparently  been  ex¬ 
posed  about  their  “options,”  and  did  not  pressure 
them  to  get  abortions. 

But  Thoman  Horkan,  spokesperson  for  the  Flor¬ 
ida  Conference  of  Bishops,  claimed  the  health  offi¬ 
cials  were  biased  toward  abortions  for  the  women 
because  they  did  not  want  to  bear  the  “burden”  of 
possibly  handicapped  children  who  might  become 
wards  of  the  state.  “Handicapped  persons  merit  our 
help,  before  and  after  birth,”  declared  Horkan. 

—  John  Kyper 


comunidad  homosexual  argentina 

BUENOS  AIRES  —  Comunidad  Homosexual  Ar¬ 
gentina  (CHA),  a  coalition  of  lesbian  and  gay  groups 
in  the  country,  recently  issued  the  first  edition  of  its 
monthly  magazine,  Vamos  a  Andar.  The  magazine 
consists  of  international  news,  cultural  articles,  and 
political  opinion. 

According  to  the  International  Lesbian  and  Gay 
Information  Bulletin,  CHA  was  founded  in  1984  and 
consists  of  a  number  of  groups,  including  Alternativa 
Socialista  por  la  Liberacion  Sexual,  Pluralista,  Con- 
tacto,  Espiritualidad,  and  a  women’s  group.  Their  pri¬ 
mary  goal  for  this  year  is  to  abolish  a  law  that  enables 
the  police  to  detain  any  person  for  24  hours  “for  iden¬ 
tification”  purposes.  The  law  is  frequently  used  to  in¬ 
timidate  and  harass  gay  men  and  lesbians. 

CHA  is  also  part  of  the  nationwide  movement  for 
human  rights,  demanding  the  liberation  of  political 
prisoners,  and  state  action  against  those  guilty  of 
crimes  during  the  “dirty  war”  in  Argentina. 

To  suscribe  to  Vamos  a  Andar  or  to  correspond 
with  CHA,  which  is  requesting  a  bibliography  on 
AIDS,  write  to:  C.C.  45-Suc  37  (1437),  Buenos  Aires,  Ar¬ 
gentina.  Do  not  mention  the  name  of  the  group  on 
correspondence. 

—  Stephanie  Poggi 


if  we  would  choose 

NEW  YORK  —  If  people  in  the  U.S.  could  choose 
the  sex  of  their  children,  boys  would  come  out  ahead 
among  those  willing  to  choose.  However,  according 
to  the  recent  poll  by  the  Media-General  Associated 
Press,  most  people  resist  choosing  the  sex  of  their 
children. 

When  asked  if  respondents  would  take  the  op¬ 
portunity  to  choose  the  sex  of  their  children  if  it  were 
possible,  72  percent  said  they  would  not. 

The  poll  found  that  among  those  willing  to 
choose,  27  percent  of  respondents  would  choose  a 
boy,  16  percent  a  girl  and  57  percent  had  no 
preference  or  were  undecided. 

Approximately  30  percent  of  men  and  25  percent 
of  the  women  preferred  boys.  Only  12  percent  of  the 
men  would  choose  to  have  a  girl,  compared  with  20 
percent  of  the  women. 

Twenty-eight  percent  of  those  who  preferred 
boys  said  their  choice  was  based  on  understanding 
boys  better  and  liking  them  better.  Fifteen  percent 
said  boys  are  easier  to  bring  up.  The  same  rationale 
was  cited  by  18  percent  of  those  who  wanted  girls. 

Among  those  who  preferred  girls,  31  percent  said 
they  liked  girls  better. 

—  Stephanie  Poggi 


healthamerica  ‘redlined’  all  of 
san  francisco 

SAN  FRANCISCO  —  National  Gay  Rights  Ad¬ 
vocates  (NGRA)  have  filed  a  $500,000  consumer  fraud 
complaint  against  HealthAmerica.  The  health  main¬ 
tenance  organization  is  charged  with  rejecting  all  San 
Francisco  applicants  in  an  effort  to  avoid  AIDS- 
related  medical  expenses. 

Ben  Schatz,  director  of  the  AIDS  civil  rights  pro¬ 
ject  at  NGRA,  stated,  “HealthAmerica’s  crude  policy 
of  redlining  is  not  only  illegal  and  unethical  —  it  is 
medically  absurd.  AIDS  is  neither  a  ‘gay  disease’  nor 
a  ‘San  Francisco  disease’  —  it  is  a  national  problem 
which  affects  men,  women,  and  children  of  all  races 
and  sexual  orientations.” 

The  gay  advocates  are  seeking  the  maximum 
penalty  allowed  by  law,  and  demand  that 
HealthAmerica  admit  the  rejected  San  Francisco  ap¬ 
plicants  and  re-imburse  them  for  any  costs  their  in¬ 
itial  rejection  has  caused  them  to  incur.  If 
HealthAmerica  does  not  comply,  NGRA  will  demand 
revocation  of  the  company’s  license. 

—  Sharon  Flaase 


gay  city  founder  close  to  deal 

RHYOLITE,  NV  —  Stonewall  Park,  a  proposed 
gay  city,  is  close  to  becoming  a  reality,  pending  only  a 
downpayment  and  signing  of  contracts.  Both  are  ex¬ 
pected  to  happen  in  the  near  future.  Once  a  mining 
town,  Rhyolite  is  now  a  ghost  town  located  120  miles 
north  of  Las  Vegas,  with  only  four  residents.  The  new 
city’s  founder  and  spokesperson,  Fred  Schoonmaker, 
is  asking  for  help  with  grassroots  fundraising  for  the 
first  round  of  building,  and  is  seeking  residents  who 
have  experience  with  city  planning  and  construction. 
Stonewall  Park  will  be  governed  by  five  elected  coun- 
cilpersons,  operating  under  a  city  charter.  According 
to  the  Bohemian  Bugle  of  Las  Vegas,  Schoonmaker 
believes  that  “Stonewall  Park  at  Rhyolite  will  give 
those  who  wish  to  live  a  completely  open  and  self- 
expressive  lifestyle,  the  environment  to  do  so  without 
complications.” 

—  Sharon  Haase 


West  German  feminists  outraged  at  the  lack  of  monuments  to  women  —  and  too  impatient  to  wait  for  them  to 
be  carved,  have  dressed  male  statues  in  drag  to  end  the  shortage.  According  to  Emma,  a  feminist  magazine 
published  in  Stuttgart,  protesters  drape  the  figures  with  the  slogan  “Denk-Mal  an  Frau,”  meaning  both 
“Monument  to  Women”  and  “Think  (Remember)  about  women.” 


pravda  aids  cartoon  ruffles  u.s. 

MOSCOW  —  A  recent  cartoon  in  the  Soviet 
newspaper  Pravda  revives  the  Soviet  charge  that  the 
virus  believed  to  cause  AIDS  was  developed  by  the 
Pentagon  as  part  of  a  chemical  warfare  campaign. 
According  to  the  weekly  news,  of  Miami,  the  cartoon 
depicts  a  scientist  handing  over  a  large  vial  marked 
“AIDS  virus”  to  a  military  figure  who  pays  for  it  in 
dollars. 

U.S.  ambassador  Arthur  A.  Hartman  responded 
to  the  cartoon  by  calling  it  “perfectly  dreadful.”  He 
also  said  the  Soviets  may  be  “undermining  the  credi¬ 
bility  of  this  [Communist]  Party  with  its  own 
scientists.” 

—  Stephanie  Poggi 


and  then  there’s 
attempted  murder  by  licking 

INDIANAPOLIS,  IN  —  A  man  who  said  he  had 
AIDS  and  allegedly  tried  to  lick  a  policeman  here  will 
not  be  charged  with  attempted  murder,  according  to 
this  city’s  gay  paper,  The  Works. 

John  W.  Heidler  instead  faces  a  misdemeanor 
count  of  battery  on  a  police  officer  on  the  licking 
charges. 

Patrolman  Stephen  P.  Staletovich  said  Heidler 
told  him  he  had  AIDS  and  “then  lunged  toward  me  and 
attempted  to  lick  me  with  his  tongue.”  Staletovich  ar¬ 
rested  Heidler  on  charges  of  attempted  murder,  but 
Deputy  prosecutor  Marc  E.  Lundy  refused  to  allow  the 
charge  because  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove  Heidler 
actually  intended  to  kill  the  police  officer. 

“We  don’t  even  know  if  the  man’s  got  the 
disease,”  Lundy  said.  “There’s  no  evidence  that  he’s 
got  it,  and  there’s  no  evidence  that  it  can  be  transmit¬ 
ted  that  way.” 

—  Stephanie  Poggi 


jesus  loves  you. . .  as  long  as  you’re 
monogamous 

NEW  BRITAIN,  CT  —  Conservatives  and  lesbian/ 
gay  advocates  of  this  state’s  largest  Protestant  de¬ 
nomination  have  reached  a  compromise  on  a  resolu¬ 
tion  outlining  what,  kind  of  sexual  practices  are 
acceptable. 

According  to  Another  Voice,  delegates  to  the 
Connecticut  Conference  of  the  United  Church  of 
Christ  voted  October  18  to  accept  a  resolution  saying 
Jesus  “encourages  monogamous  relationships  and 
considers  sexual  promiscuity  to  be  sinful.” 

The  wording  was  considered  a  compromise  be¬ 
tween  a  Greenwich  congregation  that  sought  to  pass 
a  resolution  condemning  bisexuality  as  “by  definition 
promiscuous”  and  the  church’s  Coalition  for  Lesbian 
and  Gay  Concerns. 

The  United  Church  of  Christ  in  Connecticut  has 
111,000  members  in  275  churches. 

—  Stephanie  Poggi 


pink  youthquake 

OSLO,  Norway  —  “Pink  Youthquake,”  the  Third 
International  Gay  Youth  Congress,  drew  100  partici¬ 
pants  from  18  countries.  Funded  by  the  European 
Youth  Foundation  and  Youth  Office  of  the  City  of 
Oslo,  the  August  congress  resolved  to  establish  an 
international  lesbian/gay  youth  organization. 

Among  statements  agreed  upon  by  the  congress 
were: 

•  “We  demand  that  education  authorities  in  all  coun¬ 
tries  start  giving  education  on  all  aspects  of  life,  in¬ 
cluding  the  various  forms  of  sexuality.  As  young  Gays 
and  Lesbians  we  think  we  have  a  legitimate  right  to 
have  role  models. . .  [W]e  need  to  see  Gays  and  Lesbi¬ 
ans  positively  represented  not  only  in  sex  education, 
but  also  in  literature,  etc. ...  We  also  stress  the  im¬ 
portance  of  encouraging  gay  and  lesbian  teachers  to 
be  open  about  their  sexuality. 

•  “We . . .  firmly  believe  that  all  people  have  a  right  to 
choose  to  bring  up  children,  regardless  of  their  sex, 
sexuality  or  lifestyles.  We  call  upon  every  nation’s 
government  to  abolish  all  laws  discriminating  against 
people  who  choose  not  to  conform  to  traditional  ways 
of  forming  families,  including  laws  relating  to  child 
custody,  adoption  and  artificial  insemination.  We 
also  believe  that  the  legal  term  ‘marriage’  excludes 
other  relationships  and  should  be  removed  from  judi¬ 
cial  rulings. . .. 

•  “We  call  upon  all  religious  communities  to  stop 
discrimination  against  gays  and  lesbians.  Religious 
feelings  and  beliefs  are  not  necessarliy  incompatible 
with  a  gay/lesbian  consciousness.  We  demand  that 
the  gay  and  lesbian  movement  accept  this  fact.  The 
gay  and  lesbian  movement  should  recognize  religious 
gays  and  lesbians  who  in  a  progressive  way  fight  on 
gay  and  lesbian  issues  within  churches  or  other 
religious  communities. 

•  “Organized  religion  is  by  nature  oppressive  be¬ 
cause  it  makes  moral  decisions  which  people  should 
be  free  to  make  for  themselves.” 

—  Stephanie  Poggi 


news  notes  compiled  by  Stephanie  poggi 


■Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986*  Page  3 


Mental  Hospital  Claims  Lesbian  is  Homicidal 


By  Kim  Westheimer 

MEDFIELD,  MA  —  Gena 
Spero,  a  Latina  lesbian  who  has 
been  committed  to  Medfield  State 
Hospital,  is  on  “homicidal, 
suicidal,  and  escape  precautions” 
despite  claims  by  Spero  and  her 
lawyers  that  she  is  not  prone  to  any 
of  these  actions.  Due  to  the  pre¬ 
cautions,  she  is  under  twenty-four 
hour  surveillance,  primarily  by  a 
male  guard,  while  at  the  hospital. 

Spero  has  been  placed  in  Med¬ 
field  State  Hospital  following  four 
years  in  the  Massachusetts  Correc¬ 
tional  Institute  in  Framingham 
where  she  was  held  without  trial. 
(See  GCN,  Vol.  14,  No.  13)  Spero 
was  arrested  for  allegedly  killing 
her  lover,  Gina  Sindoni,  and  has 
been  declared  incompetent  to 
stand  trial  four  times.  Use  of 
psychotropic  [mind-altering] 
drugs  have  played  a  large  role  in 
the  competency  hearings.  Stephen 
Collela,  one  of  Spero’s  lawyers, 
has  insisted  that  Spero  not  be  on 
drugs  if  she  is  to  stand  trial.  Col¬ 
lela  argues  this  is  necessary  so  the 
jury  can  see  her  as  she  was  at  the 
time  of  Sindoni’s  death.  Spero, 
who  has  consistently  said  she  does 
not  want  to  take  such  drugs, 
claims  she  is  currently  being  forced 
to  do  so. 

Spero  charges  that  homophobia 
has  played  a  large  role  in  her  treat¬ 
ment  at  Medfield  State,  particular¬ 
ly  in  her  classification  as 
homicidal.  In  a  recent  letter  to 
GCN,  Spero  claimed  she  was  put 
on  homicidal  precautions  because 
she  gave  several  lesbian  publica¬ 
tions  to  another  lesbian  at  the 
hospital.  They  were  Outrageous 
Women,  a  lesbian  S/M  magazine; 
Lesbian  Inciter,  a  lesbian  political 
publication,  and  a  lesbian  book  of 
poetry.  Spero  said  an  incident  in¬ 
volving  another  patient  who  pun¬ 
ched  her  also  led  to  the  homicidal 
classifications. 

Spero  and  one  of  her  lawyers, 
Charles  Barron,  attended  a  meet¬ 
ing  with  a  Medfield  State  staff  per¬ 
son  who  outlined  the  reasons  for 
the  homicidal  precautions.  Barron 
declined  to  elaborate  on  the 
specifics  of  that  meeting.  He  said 
he  was  informed  that  Spero  was 
placed  on  homicidal  alert  “based 
on  an  incident  with  another  per¬ 


son.  They  claimed  another  inmate 
was  frightened  by  Gena.”  “I  think 
there’s  no  foundation  for  any  of 
[the  classifications],”  Barron  said. 

The  suicide  alert,  said  Barron, 
was  based  oh  Spero’s  “alleged  at¬ 
tempt”  at  suicide  on  the  day  of  her 
last  competency  hearing,  October 


Gena  Spero 


15.  At  that  time,  Spero  “col¬ 
lapsed”  and  was  taken  to  a 
hospital  for  blood  tests.  The  lab 
results  of  the  test  were  conflicting, 
with  one  test  indicating  a  Tylenol 
overdose  and  another  indicating 
no  presence  of  drugs.  Spero  denies 
taking  any  drugs  and  accuses  Med¬ 
field  State  of  doing  “anything  to 
make  this  unwelcomed  lesbian 
look  so  bad.” 

Both  Barron  and  Spero  said 
they  could  not  imagine  why 
hospital  officials  would  think  she 
was  likely  to  escape,  as  she  has 
made  no  such  attempts. 

Medfield  State  Hospital  of¬ 
ficials  have  not  returned  GCN s 
calls. 

Barron  is  critical  of  Medfield 
State’s  general  handling  of  Spero. 
“Gena  is  willing  to  admit  she  has 
problems,”  said  Barron.  “She’s 
looking  for  help.”  But  prior  to  the 
week  of  November  17,  Spero  was 
getting  no  psychotherapy  at  Med¬ 
field,  according  to  Barron.  “She 
was  just  getting  evaluated,”  he 
said.  Barron  said  he  is  uncomfor¬ 
table  with  the  fact  that  drug 
therapy  was  attempted  before 
psychotherapy. 

Spero  sought  help  from  Barron 
in  negotiating  a  treatment  plan 
with  a  hospital  employee.  Through 
this  process,  said  Barron,  a  con¬ 
tract  was  signed  by  Spero  and  the 
employee  which  stated  that  Spero 
would  take  a  specific  psychotropic 
drug  as  long  as  she  did  not  have  to 
take  stronger  drugs  such  as 
Thorazine. 


A  few  days  after  this  contract 
was  signed,  Barron  said  he  was 
asked  to  meet  with  Judith  Joseph, 
the  administrator  of  Medfield 
State.  According  to  Barron, 
Joseph  presented  a  treatment  plan 
for  Spero  which  would  have  author¬ 
ized  the  administration  of  up  to 
1,200  miligrams  of  Thorazine. 
Barron  claimed  that  despite  his  in¬ 
sistence  that  Spero  be  consulted 
about  the  plan,  Joseph  said, 
“We’re  not  asking  Gena  to  nego¬ 
tiate.  We  don’t  negotiate  contracts 
here.  We  come  up  with  treatment 
plans.” 

According  to  Spero,  she  is  cur¬ 
rently  taking  50  mg  of  “Mobane.” 
Spero  said  she  is  unaware  of  the  in¬ 
tended  purpose  of  the  drug  and 
asserts  that  she  had  “no  choice”  in 
its  administration  because 
they  “wanted  to  give  me  Thor¬ 
azine.”  Spero  said  that  20  mg  of 
“Mobane”  makes  her  feel  silly 
while  a  dosage  of  50  mg  makes  her 
feel  anxious  and  paranoid. 

Spero  also  complained  that  the 
one  drug  she  needs  is  being 
withheld  from  her.  The  drug, 
Tegratol,  controls  a  condition  of 
temporal  epilepsy,  said  Spero.  She 
asserts  that  Tegratol  is  being 
withheld  from  her  so  that  her  doc¬ 
tor  can  see  what  she’s  like  on  the 
other  psychotropic  drug.  “I  feel 
like  I’m  a  guinea  pig  or 
something,”  said  Spero. 

Under  Massachusetts  General 
Law,  a  person  who  is  committed  to 


By  Kim  Westheimer 
BOSTON  —  Plans  are  underway 
for  creation  of  the  Boston  Center 
for  Lesbians  and  Gay  Men  Inc. 
Organizers  expect  to  finalize  by¬ 
laws  by  January  1987.  Meanwhile, 
they  are  looking  for  space  to  rent 
and  have  agreed  upon  a  statement 
of  purpose. 

“There’s  an  incredible  need  for 
space  in  our  community,”  said 
Ann  Maguire,  Mayor  Raymond 
Flynn’s  liaison  to  the  lesbian  and 
gay  community.  “Spaces  [current¬ 
ly  used  by  lesbian  and  gay 
organizations]  can  be  changed  or 
taken  away  or  not  kept  up.  Groups 
are  always  looking  for  places  to 
meet  at  a  reasonable  price.” 
Maguire  organized  the  first  com¬ 
munity  center  meetings  in  early 
spring  of  this  year!  Currently,  ap¬ 
proximately  a  dozen  people  are  in¬ 
volved  in  the  organizing. 

While  the  center  would  definite¬ 
ly  serve  a  need  for  organizations 
needing  meeting  space,  it  would 
also  provide  a  service  to  in¬ 
dividuals,  according  to  Jeff  Pike. 
Pike,  who  is  the  secretary  of  the 
Beantown  Softball  League  and  a 
Boston  Gay  Games  coordinator, 
got  involved  with  the  community 
center  planning  “as  an 
individual,”  rather  than  as  a  repre¬ 
sentative  of  any  organization. 

“People  who  may  not  want  to 
join  a  specific  organization  need  a 
place  to  go,”  said  Pike,  who  envi¬ 
sions  the  center  having  a  library 
full  of  lesbian  and  gay  books  and 
being  a  place  where  people  could 
go  if  they  are  feeling  lonely  or  to 
find  out  “what’s  going  on  in  the 
community.” 

In  addition,  said  Pike,  the 
center  could  sponsor  social  events 
featuring  lesbian  or  gay  artists, 
poets  and  performers.  “It  would 
be  a  chance  for  people  to  get  their 
feet  wet,”  said  Pike. 

Organizations  that  have  ex¬ 
pressed  interest  in  becoming  an¬ 
chor  tenants  in  the  center  include 
the  Gay  Men’s  Chorus;  the  Boston 
Lesbian  and  Gay  Political  Al¬ 
liance;  Dignity,  a  lesbian  and  gay 
Catholic  organization;  the 
Freedom  Trail  Band;  and  Legacy, 
Boston’s  organization  for  lesbian 
and  gay  elders. 

In  addition  to  anchor  tenants 


a  Department  of  Mental  Health 
facility  can  refuse  medication 
unless  a  judge  rules  that  he  or  she  is 
incompetent  to  do  so.  Although 


who  would  rent  space  at  the  center 
on  a  regular  basis,  organizations 
who  wish  to  schedule  occasional 
functions  would  have  access  to  the 
space. 

The  group’s  stated  purpose  is 
“to  be  a  unifier  for  organizations 
and  individuals  in  greater  Boston’s 
lesbian  and  gay  community,”  and 
to  “assist  in  the  provision  of 
health,  education,  religious,  so¬ 
cial,  cultural  and  recreational  ser¬ 
vices  to  the  community.”  “In 

New  Zealand 

Continued from  page  I 

broad  range  of  New  Zealand  socie¬ 
ty.  As  Fran  Wilde,  the  Member  of 
Parliament  (MP)  who  sponsored 
the  bill,  told  Pink  Triangle  of  New 
Zealand,  people  felt  that  the 
reform  bill  had  become  critical 
“for  the  long-term  fundamentalist 
regime  [the  Right]  want[s]  to  im¬ 
pose  on  New  Zealand.”  Wilde  ad¬ 
ded,  “If  the  bill  fails,  the  bigots 
will  go  on  the  rampage  throughout 
New  Zealand.” 

It  did  seem  for  a  time  that  the 
bigots  might  get  their  chance.  New 
Zealanders  already  campaigning 
against  abortion,  sex  education  in 
the  schools,  organized  labor  and 
for  stronger  defense  measures 
were  bolstered  by  major  figures  in 
the  U.S.  New  Right.  They  helped 
coordinate  a  splashy  high-profile 
campaign  that  relied  in  large  part 
on  the  homophobic  scare  tactics  of 
Paul  Cameron.  According  to 
Alison  J.  Laurie,  of  the  Gay  Task 
Force  of  New  Zealand,  the  U.S. 
honchos  included  Louis  Sheldon, 
who  is  head  of  the  Christians  for 
Reagan,  founder  of  the  California 
Coaltion  for  Traditional  Values 
and  affiliated  with  the  Religious 
Round  Table  (a  pro-“defense” 
lobby).  Another  key  advisor  for 
the  CCC  was  John  Swan,  an  ad¬ 
vertising  executive  for  the  Ar¬ 
chdiocese  of  New  York,  who  also 
represents  the  anti-abortion  Na¬ 
tional  Right-to-Life,  and  who 
helped  defeat  the  Houston  les- 
bian/gay  rights  ordinance  last 
year. 

A  branch  of  the  notoriously 
anti-gay/lesbian  Salvation  Army 


Spero  has  been  ruled  to  be  in¬ 
competent  to  undergo  a  trial,  she 
has  not  been  ruled  incompetent  to 
make  choices  about  medication. 


order  to  best  serve  the  needs  of  the 
lesbian  and  gay  community  [the 
center]  intends  at  all  times  to  en¬ 
courage  participation  in  its  pro¬ 
grams  from  all  racial,  ethnic,  and 
religious  groups  and  from  all 
economic  and  age  levels.” 

For  more  information  about  the 
community  center  call  Ann 
Maguire  at  (617)  725-3485.  The 
next  general  meeting  will  be  held 
on  December  16  at  7  p.m.  in  City 
Hall,  Room  801. 


was  active  in  circulating  a  petition 
to  defeat  the  bill.  They  claimed 
850,000  signatures  out  of  a  total 
New  Zealand  population  of  three 
million. 

But  in  response  to  the  right-wing 
onslaught,  which  included  full- 
page  newspaper  ads  warning  ram¬ 
pant  AIDS,  a  coalition  of 
feminists,  trade  unions  and 
students  joined  lesbians  and  gay 
men  working  for  law  reform. 
“The  issue  engaged  more  people 
than  anything  else  in  the  past  two 
or  three  years,”  said  Logan.  In  ad¬ 
dition  to  progressive  activists  who 
handed  out  massive  quantities  of 
literature,  the  National  Council  of 
Churches  came  out  in  favor  of  the 
bill.  They  noted  that  the  Moral 
Majority  types  appeared  to  be 
seeking  control  of  school  boards 
and  local  governing  bodies.  A 
large  group  of  doctors  came  for¬ 
ward  as  well,  arguing  that  con¬ 
tinued  criminalization  would  pre¬ 
vent  effective  distribution  of  infor¬ 
mation  about  the  spread  of  AIDS. 
All  of  New  Zealand’s  major 
newspapers  supported  law  reform. 

However,  Wilde  told  Pink 
Triangle  that  while  liberal  support 
was  evident,  liberals  did  not  take  a 
particularly  active  role  in  the  cam¬ 
paign. 

While  public  support  for  law 
reform  remained  high  throughout 
the  campaign,  Logan  believes  the 
anti-gay  campaigners  did  them¬ 
selves  in  for  good  when  they  held  a 
“horrendous”  rally  late  last  year. 
Oddly,  it  seeemed  to  be  the 
Continued  on  page  10 


Foster  Policy 
Public  Hearings 


By  Kim  Westheimer 

BOSTON  —  Public  hearings 
on  proposed  changes  in  the 
state’s  foster  care  policy  will  be 
held  on  December  3  and  4  in 
Springfield  and  Boston.  The 
Gay  and  Lesbian  Defense 
Committee  (GLDC)  has  not  yet 
decided  what  role  it  will  take  in 
those  proceedings. 

The  hearings  will  address  a 
broad  range  of  proposals  regar¬ 
ding  foster  care,  including  a 
proposal  by  a  subcommittee  of 
the  foster  care  commission 
which  addresses  the  issue  of  les¬ 
bian  and  gay  foster  parents. 
(See  GCN,  Vol.  14,  No.  18) 

The  proposed  policy  states, 
“In  placing  foster  children,  the 
Commonwealth  must  consider 
a  number  of  factors,  including 
age,  sex,  sexual  preference, 
marital  status,  economic 
status,  employment  status,  or 
education  of  the  potential 
foster  parent.  None  of  these 
factors  should  be  an  overriding 
determinant  in  a  person’s 
eligibility  to  become  a  foster 

parent _ ”  The  subcommittee 

also  recommended  that  deci¬ 
sions  about  placements  be 
made  by  “the  staff  who  are 
closest  to  the  case  and  best  able 
to  assess  the  individual  place¬ 
ment  needs  of  the  child.” 

The  proposed  policy  differs 
greatly  from  current  placement 


policy  which  makes  it  very  dif¬ 
ficult  for  a  lesbian,  gay,  or  un¬ 
married  person  to  become  a 
foster  parent. 

GLDC  has  fought  the  state’s 
foster  care  policy  since  its  in¬ 
ception  in  May  of  1985.  For 
more  information  about 
GLDC’s  plans  for  the  hearings, 
call  (617)  522-4368. 

The  December  3  hearing  will 
be  held  in  Boston  at  the  Mc¬ 
Cormack  Building,  1  Ashbur¬ 
ton  Place  on  the  2 1  st  floor  from 

3  p.m.  to  7  p.m.  The  December 

4  hearing  will  be  held  in  Spr¬ 
ingfield  at  Springfield 
Technical  Community  College, 
1  Armory  Square,  Building  20, 
rooms  505  and  507  from  3  p.m. 
to  7  p.m. 

People  wishing  to  testify  at 
the  hearings  may  register  at  the 
door  to  deliver  oral  testimony 
or  submit  written  testimony. 
Oral  testimony  must  be  limited 
to  three  or  five  minutes  depen¬ 
ding  on  the  number  of  people 
wishing  to  testify. 

The  foster  care  commission 
will  reconvene  on  December  17 
to  evaluate  its  proposal  and 
submit  a  final  draft  to  Gover¬ 
nor  Michael  Dukakis  and 
Human  Services  Secretary 
Philip  Johnston. 


Mass.  Caucus  v. 
Sodomy  Law 


By  Kim  Westheimer 

BOSTON  —  The  Mass.  Les¬ 
bian  and  Gay  Political  Caucus 
may  attempt  to  repeal  the 
state’s  sodomy  laws  in  1987. 
The  Caucus,  which  has  been  at¬ 
tempting  to  pass  a  lesbian  and 
gay  rights  bill  for  the  last 
decade,  has  recently  broadened 
its  focus.  Among  other  lobby¬ 
ing  efforts,  it  successfully 
worked  for  this  year’s  passage 
of  an  HIV  confidentiality  bill  in 
the  state  legislature. 

At  a  November  19  meeting, 
which  included  Caucus  mem¬ 
bers  and  individuals  from  other 
Boston  area  lesbian  and  gay 
organizations,  the  Caucus  dis¬ 
cussed  methods  of  attacking 
the  state  sodomy  law.  Ideas  in¬ 
cluded  targeting  the  court 
system,  the  attorney  general’s 
office  and  the  legislature.  Ac¬ 


cording  to  Caucus  Co-chair 
Arline  Isaacson,  participants 
were  particularly  interested  in 
passage  of  a  “privacy  statute.” 
Such  a  statute  could  overrule 
the  sodomy  laws  by  defining 
areas  of  activity  in  which  the 
state  could  not  get  involved, 
such  as  non-commercial,  con¬ 
sensual  acts  between  adults. 

In  addition,  the  Caucus  will 
continue  to  prioritize  the  civil 
rights  bill.  Future  AIDS-related 
legislation  may  also  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  well  as  “foster  care- 
related”  legislation. 

The  next  Caucus  will  be 
December  10  at  7  p.m.  in  the 
Northeastern  University  Snell 
Building,  Room  222.  For  more 
information  call  (617) 
262-1565. 


Making  Space  for  Boston 
Gay  Men  and  Lesbians 


Community  Voices 


■Page  4  •  Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986 


jj  To  our  darling  subscribers: 

You  may  have  noticed  your  mailing 
labels  have  looked  funny  over  the  last 
few  weeks,  specifically,  the  number  of 
issues  left  on  your  subscription  may  have 
been  fluctuating  erratically. 

Well,  fear  not.  Your  trusty  computer 
committee  is  working  hard  to  debug  our 
new  subscription  program.  We  seem  to 
have  everything  under  control  now,  but 
if  your  “number  left’’  keeps  changing, 
please  bear  with  us.  I 

any  help  in  texas? 

Dear  GCN: 

Texas  prisoners  have  a  bad  habit  of  not  sticking 
together  and  fighting  for  their  rightful  rights. 
They  are  all  too  busy  watching  TV  or  killing  each 
other  to  fight  the  system.  Since  I’m  locked  down 
in  isolation,  I  spend  all  my  time  in  the  law  books 
and  reading  if  it  might  help  me  get  out.  These  con¬ 
victs  cry  about  getting  messed  over  but  they  don’t 
want  to  do  shit  about  it. 

Oh,  and  they  took  my  typewriter  (as  you  can 
see).  I  hope  I  can  still  get  my  letter  printed.  I’m 
going  to  write  the  ACLU  address  you  gave  me. 
But  do  you  know  of  any  gay  organizations 
around  Houston  or  Dallas,  or  gay  newspapers.  If 
so  please  send  me  the  address  so  I  can  get  in 
touch. 

Well,  I  guess  1  better  close  since  1‘ve  done  asked 
too  much  already  (except  it  sure  would  be  nice  to 
have  a  penpal!). 

Thank  you, 

Charles  Ray  Stevens 
306171  Ramsey  II 
Rt  4  Box  1200 
Rosharon,  TX  77583 


don’t  want  to  be  his 
‘boy/punk/kid’ 

Dear  GCN: 

My  problem  is  that  I  don’t  know  if  I’m  GAY  or 
not.  I  have  this  guy  who  CARES  for  me  alot ,  and 
I  like  him,  but  I  don’t  want  to  be  his 
boy /punk/kid  etc.  I  know  he  wants  me  to  be.  I’ve 
let  him  have  sex  with  me,  but  now  I  want  him  to 
stop.  I  know  I’ve  opened  up  his  feelings  by  letting 
him  have  sex  with  me  and  I  don’t  want  to  hurt  him 
for  I  know  how  he  feels  about  me.  He’s  doing  a 
lot  of  time. 

It  was  hurting  me  to  continue,  so  I  had  myself 
locked  up  [isolation].  At  times  it  felt  good  having 
him  care  about  me,  and  then  not  so  good  because 
everybody  thinks  I’m  his  boy/punk/kid  etc... 

I  got  too  much  pride  in  myself  to  be  anybody’s 
boy /punk/kid  etc...  I  don’t  want  to  be  labeled.  1 
want  these  guys  to  accept  me  as  being  me,  and  not 
for  being  gay  or  his  boy  ... 

Am  1  gay?  Should  I  worry  about  what  others 
think  about  me  &  him?  Or  continue  being  his 
friend?-  He’s  the  only  friend  I  have  within  these 
walls. 

If  you  have  had  the  experiences  I’m  going 
through,  please  write  me. 

Thank  you, 

Jay  Detamore 
185-719 
Box  45699 

Lucasville,  OH  45699 


lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllltllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMIIIIIII 

GCN  Job  Opening 

GCN  is  seeking  a  CIRCULATION  MANAGER/STAFF  WRITER.  Begin 
1/87-3/87.  Research  and  write  news  stories  of  interest  to  national  readership. 
Coordinate  weekly  mailing  of  paper  by  volunteers,  process  subs  and  renewals. 
Requires  writing  skills  and  ability  to  work  with  deadlines,  interpersonal,  organiza¬ 
tional  and  record-keeping  skill.  Knowledge  of  data  entry  and/or  computers 
helpful. 

Position  requires  familiarity  with  gay  and  lesbian  community;  commitment 
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making;  and  awareness  of  class  issues. 

All  GCN  staff  members  receive  $180/week  plus  4  weeks  paid  vacation, 
complete  health /life  insurance  and  sick  leave.  GCN  also  offers  staff  members  a 
flexible,  non-hierarchical  work  setting,  with  room  for  independence  and  innova¬ 
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Send  resumes  to  GCN  Circ/Writer  Search,  167  Tremont  Street,  Boston, 
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barnes  &  noble 
censorship 

Dear  GCN: 

I’m  writing  to  you  to  ask  your  help  to  fight  the 
growing  wave  of  censorship  and  homophobia 
that  is  flooding  the  country. 

The  methods  of  the  Rigid  Right  are  both  subtle 
and  insidious.  Among  the  tactics  of  “the  moral 
majority”  are  moves  designed  to  prevent, 
through  intimidation,  booksellers,  wholesale  and 
retail,  from  carrying  gay-oriented  books. 

A  case  in  point  involves  the  current  Barnes  & 
Noble  catalog.  In  the  past,  Barnes  &  Noble,  one 
of  the  country’s  largest  book-dealers,  has  carried 
a  wide  selection  of  good  gay  literature,  but  this 
material  has  been  omitted  from  recent  catalogs. 
The  reason?  Complaints  from  the  far  right 
against  “books  for  queers.” 

We  need  to  counteract  this  campaign  against 
gay  literature  with  a  letter-writing  blitz  of  our 
own.  So  I’m  asking  you  to  write  to  Barnes  &  Noble 
about  the  lack  of  gay  material  in  their  catalog. 
Tell  the  company  you  hope  these  books  are  still 
available  because  you  prefer  to  buy  through  the 
catalog.  Don’t  forget  to  let  the  company  know 
that  if  you  can’t  get  gay  boks  through  their 
catalog,  you  will  have  to  go  elsewhere  to  do  all 
your  bookbuying.  This  positive  tactic  will  work: 
the  bottom  line  for  any  company  is  always  dollars 
and  cents.  When  faced  with  the  prospect  of  losing 
sales,  Barnes  &  Noble  will  have  to  respond  by 
again  featuring  gay  books  in  their  catalogs. 

For  many  of  us,  buying  gay  books  through  mail 
order  is  the  only  way  we  have  to  receive  this  im¬ 
portant  material.  The  freedom  to  read  publica¬ 
tions  that  touch  our  lives  is  one  of  our  basic 
American  rights,  and  we  cannot  allow  these  rights 
to  be  trampled  by  our  enemies. 

By  writing  Barnes  &  Noble,  you  can  help  insure 
that  we  will  continue  to  have  access  to  gay 
literature.  Send  your  letter  to: 

Barnes  &  Noble 

(You  may  add  “Catalog  Dept.” 

or  “Mail  Order  Dept.”) 

126  Fifth  Ave. 

New  York,  NY  10011 

Thank  you  for  your  help;  thank  you  for  caring. 
Very  truly  yours, 

T.  R.  Witomski 
Toms  River,  NJ 


Get  Your  Butt  in  Gear 


,.and  Join  GCN ’5  Lay-Out  Crew  on  Thursday  Nights 

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Call  Ina  or  Loie  for  details:  426-4469 


children  of  gay  or 
lesbian  parents 

Dear  GCN: 

Several  months  ago  I  participated  in  a  five- 
person  panel  of  lesbians  and  gay  men  that  spoke 
with  a  high  school  sociology  class.  One  young 
woman  asked  us  our  feelings  about  parenting. 
She  worried  that  children  raised  by  gay  or  lesbian 
parents  would  face  unduly  harsh  treatment  from 
the  outside  world.  By  the  time  children  have 
reached  elementary  school,  they  have  become 
aware  of  the  widespread  animosity  and  prejudice 
lesbians  and  gay  men  encounter.  Is  it  fair  then, 
she  asked,  to  send  one’s  children  out  into  that 
openly  hostile  world  with  the  knowledge  that 
their  parents  are  the  ones  people  are  talking 
about?  Would  it  be  better,  the  student  wondered, 
for  gay  men  and  lesbians  not  to  parent,  or  to  con¬ 
ceal  their  identity  as  gay  or  lesbian,  to  spare  the 
children  the  burden  of  guilt  by  association? 

1  responded  by  pointing  out  that  there  are  lots 
of  reasons  why  children’s  parents  might  be  sub¬ 
ject  to  ridicule.  A  differently-abled  parent,  or  one 
of  another  racial  background,  or  even  a  parent 
employed  non-traditionally,  might  also  prompt 
rude  comments  or  misconceptions  which  could 
embarrass  the  children.  Are  we  then  to  limit  par¬ 
enthood  to  those  deemed  socially  acceptable/ 
desirable  according  to  prevailing  societal  norms? 

Recently,  I  heard  the  same  concern  voiced  by  a 
lesbian  mother  who  wondered  if  her  children 
carry  the  onus  of  her  lifestyle  on  their  backs. 
Surely  their  peers  did  not  always  display  the  same 
acceptance  and  positive  attitudes  found  in  her 
home.  Would  it  be  better  to  shield  the  children 
from  taunts  and  torn  loyalties  by  denying  her  own 
identity? 

Though  I  did  not  respond,  several  thoughts 
came  to  mind.  First,  any  denial  of  self,  either 
through  active  deception  or  passive  omission  of 
truth,  may  impart  the  message  that  the  parent 
considers  her  or  himself  wrong,  and  that  there 
would  be  cause  of  shame  if  others  “knew.”  If 
children  sense  that  their  parents  maintain  self- 
respect  in  the  face  of  cultural  devaluation,  then 
the  children  receive  the  message  that  pride  in  one¬ 
self  does  not  depend  on  the  acceptance  of  others. 
Self-respect  comes  from  within. 

Secondly,  while  having  a  lesbian  or  gay  parent 
may  prove  initially  difficult  for  children,  it  can 
provide  the  opportunity  to  make  decisions  about 
loyalty  and  judgment  that  other  children  miss. 

My  younger  sister  has  had  to  figure  out  whether 
her  assessment  of  my  worth  and  character  would 
take  shape  from  her  own  perceptions  of  me  as  her 
sister,  or  from  the  negative  picture  society  paints 
of  me  as  a  lesbian.  She  has  had  to  separate  out 
that  which  genuinely  offends  her  own  sensibilities 
from  that  which  society  tells  her  she  should  deem 
offensive. 

Because  I  am  a  lesbian  and  her  sister,  she  has 
had  to  grapple  with  the  cognitive  dissonance  in¬ 
herent  in  respecting  someone  society  labels 
“wrong.”  In  order  to  resolve  that  dissonance,  she 
has  had  to  fully  examine  the  negative  image  of  les¬ 
bians  the  culture  presents.  If  she  perceives  me 
positively  and  the  society  perceives  me  negatively, 
then  either  her  perceptions  or  society’s  must  be 
wrong. 

Other  children  may  automatically  digest  the 
mass  media  depiction  of  lesbians  and  gay  men,  as 
well  as  many  other  “minorities,”  because  they 
have  neither  the  incentive  to  question  culturally 
imposed  norms,  nor  experiential  data  with  which 
to  challenge  them.  Having  a  gay  parent  or  sibling 
may  foster  children’s  own  autonomous  moral  de¬ 
velopment  instead  of  merely  reinforcing  a  socially 
determined  set  of  values. 

Few  people  of  my  age  willingly  articulate  a  dif¬ 
ferent  value  system,  but  the  courage  to  do  so  re¬ 
flects  the  individualism,  personal  freedom,  and 
independent  thinking  so  often  espoused  in  Ameri¬ 
can  ideals. 

Frequently,  the  most  useful  lessons  come  pain¬ 
fully,  and  we  must  remember  that  instilling  a 
strong  sense  of  self  and  self-respect  in  our 
children  is  not  an  easy  task,  but  it  remains  an  es¬ 
sential  one. 

Leaf  Seligman 
Durham,  NH 


GayCommunityNews 


cover  photos:  Paloma© 
cover  design:  Ina  Cohen 


Gay  Community  News  is  produced  by  a  collec¬ 
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and  news  in  the  interest  of  gay  and  lesbian 
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staff  of  eleven,  a  general  membership  of 
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^indicates  member  of  paid  staff  collective 

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ART/PRODUCTION  DEPARTMENT 

Art  Coordinator:  Ina  Cohen* 
Illustrators/Layout:  Francis  Alix, 

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Proofreaders:  Linda  Burnett,  Jan 
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(president),  Steve  Dyer,  Amy  Groves, 
Raymond  Hopkins,  Shelley  Mains,  Carl 
Mann,  Anne  Phibbs,  Debbie  Rich 
CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
Coordinator:  Marcos  Bisticas-Cocoves* 
Staff:  Linda  Gwizdak,  Rebecca  Gorlin, 
Michael  Cain,  John  Jones,  David  Griffith, 
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Waight 

CLASSIFIEDS 

Coordinator:  Catherine  Lohr* 

COMPUTER  COMMITTEE:  Roger  Frye, 
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COORDINATING  EDITOR 
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DISTRIBUTION 
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Editor:  Loie  Hayes* 

Assistant:  Michael  Bronski 
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rie  Dearborn,  Nicholas  Deutsch, 

Charles  Henry  Fuller,  Clifford  Gallo, 
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dan,  Bill  Kreidler,  Pat  M.  Kuras,  John 
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NEWS  DEPARTMENT 
Editor:  Stephanie  Poggi* 

Local  Reporter:  Kim  Westheimer* 

Staff  Writer:  Marcos  Bisticas-Cocoves* 
Staff:  Scott  Brookie,  Joanne  Brown,  Art 
Cohen,  Jim  Fauntleroy,  Bruce-Michael 
Gelbert,  Chris  Guilfoy,  Craig  Harris,  Ann 
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Nelson,  Michelle  Nethercott,  Mark 
O’Malley,  Sharon  Page,  Ann  Phibbs, 

Lyn  Rossano,  Tatiana  Schreiber,  Glenn 
Sitzmann,  Denise  Sudell,  Sharon  Var- 
datira,  Nancy  Wechsler,  Diana  Woodall; 
Barry  Yeoman  John  Zeh 
OFFICE  MANAGER/PRISONER  PROJ. 
Mike  Riegle* 

Prisoner  Project  Staff:  Debra  Davenport, 
Freddie  Greenfield,  Larry  Hitt,  Tiyo 
Attallah  Salah-EI 

PHOTOGRAPHERS:  Susan  Bernstein, 
Marie  Favorito,  Susan  Fleischmann, 
Marilyn  Humphries,  Debbie  Rich,  RINK, 
Ellen  Shub,  Brian  Quinby 
PROMOTIONS  DEPARTMENT 
Coordinator:  Catherine  Lohr* 

Microfilm  Promoter:  Donald  Stone 
TYPOGRAPHY  DEPARTMENT 
GCN  Typesetter:  Ann  Fry* 

Outside  Typesetting  Coordinator:  Vicki 
Gabriner 

Staff:  Miranda  Kolbe,  Michael 
Grossman,  Lois  Harmon,  Suzanne 
Sowinski 


©  1986,  Bromfieid  Street  Educational  Foundation,  Inc., 
all  rights  reserved,  reprint  by  permission  only.  Our  of¬ 
fice  Is  located  at  167  Tremont  St.,  5th  FI.,  Boston,  MA 
02111.  (617)  426-4469. 

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ri3y  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986*  Page  5 

Speaking  Out - 


Gay  Health  and  Well  Being 

By  David  P.  Steward 


This  article  on  Gay  Men’s  health,  to  the  casual  reader,  may  seem  not  to  be  about  health 
at  all,  unless  one  accepts  the  word  “health”  in  its  fullest  meaning  —  to  encompass  physical, 
emotional,  and  spiritual  health. 

Psychologist  Abraham  Maslow  spoke  of  the  highest  level  of  functioning  as  “self 
actualization.”  Erik  Erikson,  correspondingly,  lists  the  highest  stage  of  development  the 
creation  of  one’s  own  reality,  becoming,  in  a  sense,  “co-creators”  with  the  Divine.  A 
common  thread  runs  through  these  theories,  that  we  are  NOT  passive  victims,  subject  to 
Divine  (or  human)  whims.  We  are  as  helpless  as  we  believe  we  are.  This  is  a  very  important 
statement  in  the  “Age  of  LaRouche.” 

To  most  enlightened  health  practitioners,  health  is  no  longer  seen  as  freedom  from 
illness  and  from  symptoms,  but  rather,  signifies  optimum  functioning  in  ALL  spheres  of 
one’s  life.  Freud  spoke  of  life  consisting  of  three  parts:  love,  work,  and  play.  How  rarely  we 
bring  together  all  these  parts  of  our  lives.  We  seem  to  be  either  working  all  the  time,  or  “in 
love  with  love,”  and  at  other  times  unable  to  stop  playing.  The  key  to  good  life,  and  to  good 
health,  seems  to  be  BALANCE,  which  often  goes  the  way  of  many  good  intentions. 

Much  of  the  beauty  written  about,  photographed,  and  talked  about  in  the  gay  male 
community  is  from  “the  outside  in.”  It  is  regrettable  that  little  attention  is  given  to  beauty 
“from  the  inside  out.”  I  hope  that  my  process  of  maturing  as  a  human  being,  while  unlikely 
to  stop  me  from  seeing  exterior  beauty,  will  bring  me  to  see  the  inner  beauty  that  is 
immortal. 

It  seems  tautological  to  say  that  without  survival  there  is  no  health.  It  is  our  survival  as 
much  as  our  health  that  is  being  threatened  on  several  fronts  right  now.  Recently,  the 
Supreme  Court  has  said  that  the  Constitutional  right  to  privacy  does  not  extend  to  us.  The 
Justice  Department  has  decreed  that  those  “suspected  of  having  AIDS”  (whatever  that 
means)  can  be  fired  without  recourse.  William  F.  Buckley,  Jr.  says  that  people  with  AIDS 
should  be  tattooed.  In  addition,  a  liar,  racjst,  and  homophobe  has  been  confirmed  as  Chief 


Community  Voices - 

honey,  if  you’ve  the  independent 
ever  been  down  catholic  church 


Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

In  the  face  of  all  this,  much  of  the  gay  male  community  is  unconcerned.  They  state,  as 
did  Jews  in  early  Nazi  Germany,  “there  are  too  many  of  us,  they  can’t  kill  us  all.”  (Six 
million  people,  including  at  least  250,000  homosexuals  were  killed  by  the  Nazis).  To  say  that 
such  a  Holocaust  cannot  happen  here  is  very  naive,  indeed.  Justice  Mosk  of  the  California 
Supreme  Court  stated  recently  that  if  the  Bill  of  Rights  were  put  to  a  public  vote,  it  would  be 
soundly  defeated. 

I  used  to  be  amazed  at  stories  of  the  victims  of  the  Holocaust,  passively  taking  a  bar  of 
soap  and  walking  into  the  showers,  knowing  that  they  were  not  showers,  but  gas  chambers.  1 
see  much  of  this  kind  of  passivity  in  our  community,  I’m  sad  to  report. 

“I’m  not  political.”  Will  gay  men  say  this  while  they  are  being  herded  into 
concentration  camps,  as  the  LaRouche  Initiative  proposes? 

“I’m  not  political.”  Will  gay  men  say  this  when  we  are  sent  to  prison  for  sexual  activity 
in  our  own  bedrooms,  with  another  consenting  adult  male? 

“I’m  not  political.”  Will  this  be  heard  while  candidates  for  public  office  are  being 
asked  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  Bible  (as  interpreted  by  the  fundamentalists),  rather  than  to 
the  Constitution? 

“I’m  not  political.”  Will  gay  male  health  workers  say  this,  when  the  LaRouche 
followers  scheme  to  take  away  their  jobs  as  health  workers? 

It  was  not  long  ago,  that,  in  Santa  Clara  County,  so-called  Christians  were  sporting 
bumper  stickers  that  said,  “Kill  A  Queer  For  Christ,”  and  a  local  leader  of  the  Moral 
Majority  said  that  he  agreed  with  the  injunction  in  Leviticus  that  he  (mis)interpreted  to 
require  the  death  of  all  homosexuals. 

For  gay  people,  there  has  always  been  a  thin  line  between  therapy  and  politics.  The  thin 
line  is  even  thinner  in  the  world  of  AIDS  and  LaRouche.  I  have  long  seen  much 
DEPRESSION  as  lack  of  EXPRESSION.  And  the  treatment  for  this  OPPRESSION  that 
often  presents  itself  in  gay  men  may  be  “street  or  organizing  therapy,”  as  well  as  “couch 
therapy.”  “Organize,  don’t  agonize,”  Saul  Alinsky  used  to  say. 

It  was  Dr.  Howard  Brown,  a  health  department  director  in  New  York,  who  said  that 
“walking  down  the  middle  of  the  street  with  my  lover,  Thomas,  at  the  Christopher  Street 
Gay  Parade,  was  worth  more  than  ten  years  of  therapy  for  me.” 

Don’t  minimize  the  value  of  fighting  back  to  feel  better  emotionally  and  physically.  I 
see  our  community  as  strong,  talented,  versatile,  and  valuable.  Paradoxically,  it  is  our 
oppressors  who  are  once  again  offering  us  the  platform  to  teach  the  world  who  we  are.  In 
Greek,  the  word  for  “crisis”  is  the  same  word  for  “opportunity.”  Let  us  not  fail  to  see  the 
opportunity  in  this  time  of  trial  and  crisis. 


Dear  GCN: 

It  began  in  the  summer  of  1983,  when  I  was 
first  transferred  to  the  Indiana  State  Refor¬ 
matory.  There  I  was  repeatedly  stripped  on  a 
lock-up  unit  in  front  of  many  male  inmates  and 
several  staff  members  who  felt  that  it  was  a  joke 
of  some  kind  to  see  a  transsexual  being  harassed 
and  made  fun  of.  It  was  not  however  a  joy  at  all 
for  me.  It  brought  me  many  unhappy  nights  and 
many  harassments  by  other  inmates.  It  seemed 
that  the  ones  that  seen  me  knew  my  body  better 
than  I  did.  And  I  was  the  one  that  knew  of  those 
secret  marks  and  curves  that  they  could  not  have 
known  except  by  the  forceable  stripping  of  my 
person  in  their  midst. 

So  I  got  together  with  someone  in  the  legal 
department  and  we  worked  out  our  plan  of  at¬ 
tack,  the  attack  that  later  on  down  the  road  led 
me  to  a  victory  over  the  Department  of  Correc¬ 
tions. 

First  I  had  an  article  done  on  me  by  the  In¬ 
dianapolis  Star,  which  was  heavy  on  the  family 
side  of  my  life;  but  the  first  step  was  to  show  and 
prove,  mind  you,  that  I  was  indeed  a  transsexual, 
or  to  be  more  correct,  a  pre-op  transsexual.  I  was 
already  a  34A  with  evidence  of  femaleness  to  the 
fullest  except  the  complete  surgery. 

The  article  did  little  to  no  good  as  it  only 
brought  my  plight  to  the  attention  of  those  that 
had  never  seen  a  transsexual.  So  next  came  the 
questions  that  the  other  inmates  got  from  their 
visitors:  ‘do  they  really  have  someone  like  that 
here!’  etc.  etc. 

One  would  think  that  by  being  in  a  place  like 
this  where  you  are  told  like  a  child  what  you  can 
and  cannot  do,  that  the  major  concern  would  be 
on  getting  the  hell  out  of  here  and  back  to  the 
things  that  you  constantly  hear  them  brag  about. 
Instead,  they  are  more  concerned  about  where 
they  can  get  a  joint  from,  or  how  they  can  beat  so¬ 
meone  out  of  some  few  packs  of  smokes,  and  try¬ 
ing  to  find  a  boy  to  have  sex  with.  And,  dear  God, 
do  not  for  whatever  you  do,  take  away  the  basket¬ 
ball,  or  you  will  have  a  major  riot,  but  it’s  ok  to 
serve  dog  food  at  chow.  That’s  about  the  only 
place  you  won’t  get  any  fighting,  except  to  get 
more.  It’s  a  shame  that  this  is  all  they  can  manage 
to  think  about.  I  have  been  knocked  because  I 
have  put  up  a  fight  to  get  things  right  for  myself 
and  the  other  transsexual  inmates  that  may  come 
in  behind  me.  Oh  sure,  they  have  said  I’ll  never 
make  it  and  the  state  will  never  give  me  my 
medication,  but  baby  they  were  wrong  because  I 
have  taken  them  all  the  way  to  the  appeals  court 
and  now  they  are  ready  to  play  let ’s-make-a -deal. 
And  it’s  on  me  to  name  the  deal.  If  you  have  some 
guts  and  stand  up  for  what  you  believe  in,  you  too 
can  get  the  things  you  want  (sometimes)  and  not 
end  up  in  prison  again  or  sitting  there  looking  like 
a  fool  and  trying  to  be  something  that  the  system 
is  making  you  out  of  and  not  what  you  want  to  be. 

I  hope  that  my  stand  as  a  person  and  a  transsex¬ 
ual  will  give  some  encouragement  to  other  gays 
and  transsexuals  in  prison  and  out  to  realize  that 
there  is  more  to  life  than  finding  a  man  that  can 
screw  good  and  ‘looks’  good,  because  honey,  if 
you’ve  been  down  and  realize  what  these  places 
do  to  people,  making  them  be  about  nothing,  it’s 
you  that  have  to  make  it  for  yourself.  I  learned 
the  hard  way. 

They  will  play  with  you  again  and  again  until 
you  are  your  for  real  self  and  say  ‘enough!’ 
Sincerely, 

Vanassa  D.  Meriwether 
(Transsexuals  In  Prison) 

PO  Box  41  —  24493 
Michigan  City,  IN  46360 


Dear  GCN: 

In  the  October  issue  of  Dignity/Boston’s 
newsletter,  President  John  Currier  raises  some  in¬ 
teresting  questions  about  Dignity’s  place  within 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  its  future  there. 
His  primary  concern  seems  to  be  what  will  happen 
to  the  weekly  mass  if  The  Church,  on  a  “witch¬ 
hunt,”  decided  to  restrict  Dignity’s  activity.  This 
is  a  concern  I’ve  always  had,  but,  unlike  President 
Currier,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  question  cannot 
be  answered  right  now;  nor  am  I  so  hopeful  that  it 
will  not  need  to  be  answered  in  the  future. 

Mention  is  made  of  two  situations  which  are  a 
key  to  what  Dignity  is,  and  to  what  it  probably 
should  become.  President  Currier  asks  the  ques¬ 
tion:  “what  will  happen  to  other  Dignity  chapters 
that  have  good  relations  with  local  bishops.”  Ex¬ 
amine  that  situation.  Most  chapters  which  have 
“good  relations”  with  local  bishops  (some  of 
whom  have  even  celebrated  mass  for  them)  have 
those  relations  because  they  are  saying  to  the  local 
bishop  that  they  (Dignity)  buy  the  official 
teaching  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  regard¬ 
ing  sexuality.  Simple  as  that;  the  local  bishop 
could  not,  would  not,  come  near  “good 
relations”  unless  the  official  teaching  were  at 
least  given  lip  service.  We  all  know  what  that  offi¬ 
cial  teaching  is:  all  sexual  activity  outside  of  hete¬ 
rosexual  marriage  is  morally  wrong.  Does  Dignity 
really  believe  that? 

President  Currier  states  that  Dignity/Boston  is 
a  community  “on  the  outside  of  the  institutional 
church.”  Why  then  is  Archdiocesan  approval  so 
important?  If  the  Roman  Catholic  Archdiocese 
were  to  forbid  its  priests  to  celebrate  mass,  where 
would  Dignity  be?  Why  is  it  so  important  to 
maintain  such  strong  ties  with  an  authority  which 
denies  the  value  of  your  existence,  based  on  an 
outdated,  illogical  sexual  morality? 

I  offer  this  solution:  following  the  logic  of  be¬ 
ing  “a  community  in  exile,”  do  as  the  early 
Church  did,  become  independent  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  those  who  “neglected  the 
weightier  matter  of  the  Law,  justice  mercy  good 
faith!”  The  Independent  Catholic  Church  exists! 
It  meets  the  needs  of  Catholics  alienated  from  the 
institutional  Church’s  attempt  to  control  minds 
and  bodies.  Invite  independent  priests  —  subtly 
active  in  the  Church  already  —  to  continue  the 
sacramental  ministry  which  Dignity  may  not  be 
able  to  if  it  continues  on  a  course  of  futile  at¬ 
tempts  to  obtain  “official  approval.” 

In  the  spirit  of  Matthew  9:38-40,  the  indepen¬ 
dent  bishops  and  priests  continue  to  make  the 
Word  known  in  places  where  it  may  never  be 
spoken  but  for  their  efforts.  There  are,  of  course, 
many  to  whom  the  independent  movement  is  not 
an  answer;  we  must  follow  our  consciences.  For 
those  in  Dignity  and  the  larger  gay  and  lesbian 
community  who  feel  that  it  is  for  them,  you  are 
invited  to  join  with  this  valid,  Catholic,  indepen¬ 
dent  part  of  the  Church.  It  is  open  to  all  men  and 
women  who  desire  to  practice  the  evolving  Catho¬ 
lic  faith,  full  of  its  traditions,  yet  ever  so  young 
and  discovering  itself  through  the  guidance  of  the 
Spirit. 

Paul  Diederich 
Boston,  MA 


GCN  prints  all  letters  to  the  editor  except 
personal  attacks.  Carbon  copies  of  letters  sent 
elsewhere  are  only  printed  on  a  space- 
available  basis.  Letters  should  be  TYPED  and 
DOLJBLF.SPACED  and  limited  to  five  typed 
pages.  Send  to  Community  Voices,  GCN,  167 
Tremont  St.,  Boston,  MA  02111. 


David  P.  Steward  is  a  licensed  clinical  social  worker  in  private  practice.  He  was  the  only 
openly  gay  public  official  in  Santa  Clara  County  (California)  for  some  five  years,  and  is 
currently  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  National  Lesbian/Gay  Task  Force. 

“Speaking  Out”  is  part  of  our  continuing  effort  to  provide  a  true  forum  of  opinion 
for  the  community.  We  encourage  you  to  send  your  ideas,  feelings,  and  comments 
to  us  and  we  encourage  you  to  respond  to  any  ideas  expressed  in  this  space.  Sub¬ 
missions  to  “Speaking  Out”  should  be  TYPED  and  DOUBLE  SPACED,  and,  if 
possible,  held  to  under  5  pages  in  length.  The  GCN  staff  collective  reserves  the 
right  to  limit  length  and  number  of  signatures  in  “Speaking  Out.”  The  opinions  ex¬ 
pressed  in  “Speaking  Out”  do  not  necessarily  reflect  the  views  of  the  newspaper, 
the  staff,  or  the  advertisers.  Write  do  Speaking  Out,  GCN,  1 67  Tremont  St.,  5th  FI., 
Boston,  MA  02111. 


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up-to-date,  and  provocative  every 
week  of  the  year? 


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can  give  your  lover, 
friends,  family, 
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Spread  the  news:  give  them  GCN  — 
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Turn  to  the  back  cover  for 
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Page  6  •  Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986 


Lesbian  Media  Artists  Weigh  Their  Choices 


By  Susie  Day 

“TV  Programs  are  the  ads  for 
the  ads,  and  the  product  is  the  au¬ 
dience.  ” 

—  Cheryl  Chisholm,  Media 
Coordinator,  National 
Black  Women 's  Health  Project 
“Viewpoints:  A  Conference  on 
Women,  Culture  &  Public  Media” 
brought  together  hundreds  of 
women  like  —  and  unlike  — 
Cheryl  Chisholm  to  share  their 
work  as  media  artists,  critics,  and 
political  activists.  Held  November 
7  and  8  at  Hunter  College  in  New 
York  City,  the  conference 
assembled  a  formidable  array  of 
“viewpoints”  on  women  ana 
culture,  most  of  which  were  based 
on  a  deep  commonly  felt  ambi¬ 
valence  toward  public  media. 


Billed  as  a  “forum  for  artistic, 
practical  and  theoretical  ex¬ 
changes,”  the  conference  was  ar¬ 
ranged  around  two  plenary  ses¬ 
sions  and  eight  panel  workshops, 
with  such  titles  as  “Cracking  the 
Media  Mystique”  and  “Sexual 
Economics.”  Panelists  included 
Mary  Helen  Washington,  editor  of 
numerous  anthologies  of  Black 


women’s  literature;  Margaret 
Randall,  documentor  of  the  lives 
of  Cuban  and  Nicaraguan  women, 
and  heroine  of  her  own  current 
legal  battle  against  deportation 
from  the  U.S.;  Yvonne  Rainer, 
choreographer  and  filmmaker, 
whose  recent  film,  The  Man  Who 
Envied  Women,  has  received  in¬ 
ternational  acclaim;  Jewell 
Gomez,  lesbian  activist,  literary 
critic,  and  poet;  and  Michele  Mat- 
telart,  French  researcher  on  Latin 
American  culture  and  communica¬ 
tion.  Screenings  of  films  and 
videos  by  participants  and  a 
photography  exhibit  counter¬ 
balanced  the  formal  discussions. 

If  Viewpoints  is  any  indication, 
there  is  a  resilient,  rapidly  matur¬ 


ing  network  of  women  with 
cameras  and  typewriters  out  there; 
a  network  that  has  begun  to  handle 
opposing  opinions  on  sex,  work 
and  politics  as  sophisticated  con¬ 
tradictions  to  be  respected  and  ex¬ 
plored.  To  do  away  with  the  com¬ 
petitive,  divisive  ways  we’ve  been 
taught  to  deal  with  one  another 
means,  as  composer/filmmaker 


Trinh  Minh-ha  suggested  in  a 
workshop,  to  “let  differences 
replace  conflicts.”  And  yet,  within 
these  differences,  a  troubling  am¬ 
bivalence  remained,  particularly 
for  lesbians. 

“Welcome  to  the  Lesbian 
Panel.  I  need  say  no  more,”  began 
moderator  Sooze  Walters  on  the 
second  day  of  the  conference,  as 
she  opened  the  workshop  called 
“Lesbian  Fictions.”  The  generous 
laughter  that  followed  relieved  a 
bit  of  the  frustration  most  lesbians 
seemed  to  feel  at  having  their 
woman-identified-ness  largely  ig¬ 
nored  by  women  the  day  before.  In 
fact,  lesbians  were  pervasive  at  the 
conference. 

It  was  comforting  —  and  a  little 


eerie  —  at  ten  o’clock  on  Sunday 
morning  to  see  one-thir.d  of  Satur¬ 
day’s  panelists,  who  only  yester¬ 
day  had  been  discussing  jump-cuts 
and  federal  funding,  file  expec¬ 
tantly  into  the  Lesbian  Room  and 
say  lesbian  things.  If  we  had  been 
ignored  by  the  rest- of  the  con¬ 
ference,  we  had  also  ignored  one 
another. 


Perhaps  one  reason  for  our 
discrete,  asexual  presence  lay  in 
the  fact  that  most  of  the  lesbians  at 
Viewpoints  did  not  present  explic¬ 
itly  “lesbian”  or  “gay”  work. 
Although  Michelle  Parkerson 
talked  about  Storme,  her  film-in¬ 
progress  documenting  the  Black 
mistress/master-of-ceremonies  at 
America’s  first  integrated  female 
impersonation  show;  and  Lynette 
Molmar  presented  her  slide  show 
depicting  “Blatant  Lesbians  on 
Madison  Avenue”;  and  flyers 
were  available  describing  Two  in 
Twenty,  a  lesbian  soap  opera 
forthcoming  in  Boston,  lesbianism 
as  a  general  issue  appeared  to  have 
dropped  out  of  sight.  This  con¬ 
spicuous  absence  of  lesbians,  in  an 
arena  where  we  were  literally 
everywhere,  seemed  to  indicate  an 
increasing  confusion  about  how 
important  our  sexual  identity  is  to 
the  media  at  large. 

Lesbian  filmmakers,  video  ar¬ 
tists  and  critics  have  felt  an  ineluc¬ 
table  pull  between  the  validity  pro¬ 
mised  by  Western  Culture  and  the 
greater  freedom  of  expression  pro¬ 
mised  by  the  Counter  Culture. 
Neither  promise  has  ever  been 
substantially  fulfilled,  yet  the 
choice  of  whether  to  work  with  an 
eye  toward  making  a  difference  in 
the  mainstream  or  toward  con- 
munities  on  the  margin  grows 
more  complicated  daily.  We  would 
often  rather  not  look  at  the  am¬ 
bivalence  that  lies  between  how  we 


live  our  lives  and  what  we  say  we 
want.  Tired  of  fighting,  eager  to 
get  on  with  our  work  as  artists  and 
critics,  we  are  apt  to  accept  a  cer¬ 
tain  degree  of  invisibility  as  les¬ 
bians. 

But  this  invisibility,  announced 
panelist  Jewell  Gomez,  is  a  “lux¬ 
ury  we  can’t-  afford.”  Gomez 
labelled  this  phenomenon  “The 
Claude  Raines  Syndrome.”  (“You 
didn’t  know  Claude  Raines  was  a 
lesbian,  did  you?”  she  quipped.) 
Like  lesbians,  she  said,  Raines 
character,  the  Invisible  Man,  had 
to  swathe  himself  in  bandages, 
then  put  on  “normal”  clothes 
before  he  could  be  seen  by  the 
world.  “If  calling  your  work  ‘les¬ 
bian’  makes  people  uncomfor¬ 
table,”  she  declared,  “that  makes 
it  even  more  important  to  do  so.” 

Yet  claiming  an  identity  may  not 
always  be  simple.  What  about 
work  that  is  openly  lesbian,  but 
challenges  no  one  to  rethink  any 
aspect  of  sexuality?  Following 
Gomez  on  the  panel,  Mandy  Mer¬ 
ck  spoke  of  the  control  exerted  by 
the  mainstream  when  lesbians  do 
become  visible.  Merck,  editor  of 
Screen  magazine,  emphasized  the 
need  to  look  at  images  of  gays  and 
lesbians  as  they  exist  now  in 
popular  culture.  She  noted  that 
films  like  Lianna  and  Desert 
Hearts  are  used  mainly  to  re¬ 
vitalize  the  failing  genre  of  the 
heterosexual  “movie  romance.” 

Continued  on  page  12 


What  do  our  lives  as  lesbians  and  gays , 
as  people  of  color ,  as  poor  people ,  as  older  people , 
have  to  do  with  those  young ,  rich ,  white 
heterosexuals  beamed  at  us  every  day? 


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TAPESTRY,  Inc. 

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370  Mystic  Ave. 

Somerville,  MA  02145 
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Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986  •  Page  7 


These  clone-like  creatures  had  invaded  the  world  he  once  ruled 

’Fifties  Collides  with  ’Eighties 


By  M. A.  Define 

He  sat  in  the  newly  renovated 
bar  and  the  late  afternoon 
sunlight  crept  through  the  slotted 
windows  and  cast  a  glow  to  his 
thinning  silver  hair.  He  had  not 
aged  well.  He  knew  that  and  he 
knew  that  the  patrons  glanced  sur¬ 
reptitiously  at  him  as  they  straggl¬ 
ed  in  from  work  or  shopping  to 
show  off  their  nautilus  bodies  and 
phony  suntans.  He. made  a  point 
of  sipping  his  pink  lady  osten¬ 
tatiously,  allowing  his  finger  to 
hover  even  higher  in  the  air  than 
was  it’s  natural  inclination. 

He  felt  their  condescension  but 
he  was  way  past  caring,  having 
long  ago  dismissed  the  masses. 
Now,  in  the  winter  of  his  life,  he 
found  himself  more  inclined  to 
loneliness.  But  he  realized  that  it 
couldn’t  be  helped,  that  he  had 
always  prided  himself  on  being  a 
step  apart,  on  marching  to  a  dif¬ 
ferent  drummer.  If  this  was  as 
close  as  he  could  find  to  civilized 
society  then  it  would  have  to  do. 

He  could  not  acclimate  himself 
to  a  straight  drinking  bar  and 
although  the  new  breed  of  gay 
macho  scared  him  almost  to  the 
extent  that  their  heterosexual 
frontrunners  had  in  the  early 
days,  he  found  himself  inevitably 
drawn  to  this  shadowy  vestige  of 
the  olden  days.  No,  he  had  no  use 
for  this  new,  liberated  world  and 
still  he  had  been  accustomed  to  a 
certain  ritual  for  so  long  that  he 
could  not,  at  this  late  date,  break 
the  habit  of  his  autumn  afternoon 
cocktail. 

A  strong  assertive  type  asked 
him  for  a  match  and  as  he  lighted 
the  cigarette  the  flame  evoked 
memories  of  days  gone  by,  days 
when  Lauren  Bacall  was  merely  a 
reflection  of  womanhood  and  he 
the  epitome  of  grace.  He  was  not 
offended  by  the  abruptness  with 
which  he  was  now  dismissed.  He 
knew  well  that  these  pale  imita¬ 
tions  were  only  mirror  images  of 
the  clone-like  creatures  who  had 
invaded  the  world  he  once  ruled, 
the  world  he,  along  with  others, 
had  made  safe  for  them. 

How  gay  he  had  been  in  the  ’40s 
and  ’50s,  how  he  had  striven  to 
achieve  the  right  combination  of 
allurement  and  guts  and  how  well 
he  had  succeeded.  How  he  had 
been  adored  for  his  class  act  in  the 
days  when  one  took  pride  in  class 
and  concern  with  acts.  He  was  the 
toast  of  the  town,  the  finishing 
touch  to  the  ensemble  and  he 
remembered  with  gratitude  the  in- 
bred  sense  of  flair  and  elan  he  had 
inherited  from  his  mother. 

Let  them  stare  at  him  now,  let 
these  whitewashed  versions  of  the 
newly  liberated  view  him  as  an 
anachronism  of  the  past.  He  was 
that  and  proud  of  it  too,  proud  of 
the  decorum  with  which  he  had 
led  his  life  and  conducted  his  af¬ 
fairs.  Reflected  through  their  eyes 
he  was  a  balding,  heavy  set  odd 
little  man,  a  cast  off  from  the  ’50s 
he’d  heard  one  of  them  say,  but 
he  would  not  respond,  would' in 
no  way  acknowledge  their  lack  of 
respect  for  his  accomplishments. 

He  had  learned  long  ago  to  deal 
with  the  hostilities  of  a  brutish 
world  and  the  few  pearls  among 
the  swine  had  been  enough  to  last 
through  the  decades,  through  the 
delicious  years  of  youth,  the 
rebellion  of  middle  age  and  now, 
through  the  last  finale  and  final 
curtain  call.  When  he  was  back  at 
home,  back  in  the  apartment  he 
shared  with  Bette  and  Catherine, 
he  would  go  to  the  faithful  mirror, 
the  one  that  had  once  belonged  to 
Gypsy  Rose  Lee;  he  would  go  and 
ask  as  he  always  did  and  the  mir¬ 
ror  would  answer  that,  yes,  there 
was  still  a  touch  of  the  old  flair 
left,  still  traces  of  the  pretty  youth 
visible.  Ah,  he  must  remember  the 
kitty  litter  tonight.  One  must 
never  neglect  to  be  considerate  of 
a  lady’s  needs.  And  Bette  and 
Catherine  were  true  ladies.  It  was 


the  yuppies  in  this  bar  who  were 
mere  alleycats.  With  that  vicious 
little  truth  tucked  into  his  pocket, 
he  stood  and  walked  proudly  out 
of  the  bar,  away  from  the  un¬ 
sophisticated  pretense  of  the  pre¬ 
sent  and  toward  the  glamorous 
memories  of  the  past. 

He  was  oblivious  to  the  swarms 
of  homeward-bound  traffic  except 
for  one  nice  looking  young  man 
on  whom  he  bestowed  a  smile  and 
who  (and  this  he  would  keep  in  his 
fantasy  box)  smiled  back. 
“Ladies,  I’m  home,”  he  sang  out 


and  they  adoringly  licked  his 
hands  as  he  rushed  to  the  mirror 
and  reassured  himself  that  the 
young  man  had  indeed  been  smil¬ 


ing  at  him.  That’s  why  he  was  so 
surprised  to  notice  the  tears 
streaming  down  his  cheeks. 


How  gay  he  had  been  in  the  ’ 40s 
and  '50s,  how  he  had  striven  for 
the  right  combination  of  allure¬ 
ment  and  guts. 


Dynasty  Drag 


Even  without  Alexis  Carrington  to  urge  them  on,  2,000  people, 
most  of  whom  were  gay  men,  painted  their  nails,  coiffed  their  hair  or 
otherwise  kicked  up  their  heels  at  the  third  annual  Dynasty  Ball  to 
benefit  Boston’s  AIDS  Action  Committee  (AAC)  on  November  22. 

In  comparison  to  AAC’s  other  major  fundraising  events  —  the 
ARTcetera  auction,  the  From  All  Walks  of  Life  walk-a-thon,  and  the 
Boston  Against  AIDS  rock/pop  concert  at  the  Metro  —  the  Dynasty 
Ball  is  the  one  most  “geared  to  the  gay  community,”  according  to 
Harry  Collings,  an  AAC  fundraiser. 

“The  guys  in  drag  were  wonderful,”  noted  one  of  the  evening’s 
revellers,  Debbie  Rich.  Over  100  volunteers  streamed  streamers,  tend¬ 
ed  bar  and  lent  their  time  to  make  the  party  a  success. 


ItgfC 


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Insurance  for  all  your  needs 


Suite  830 
50  Congress  St. 
Boston,  MA  02109 


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(Fenway\ 
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Scott  Harris,  M.D ,  our  new  internist, 
is  highly  skilled  and  approachable 
He  addresses  health  concerns  ranging 
from  common  colds/flu  to  sexually 
transmitted  diseases  and  AIDS 


Women's  Health 

Our  new  women's  health  clinician, 

P.  Clay  Stephens,  PA,  has  years  of  ex¬ 
perience  in  gay,  lesbian  and  women's 
health  care  Peggy  Roberts,  M.D,  is  a 
family  physician  who  provides  women's 
and  primary'  health  care  services. 

You  can  choose  your  own  personal  medical  provider. 

•  Free  Blood  Pressure  Clinic:  Friday  10:30  -  noon. 

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GCN  would  like  to  print 
more  articles  about  the  lives  of 
older  lesbians  and  gay  men. 
Stories  about  gay  life  in  your 
youth,  current  events  and 
organizations  devoted  to 
gay/lesbian  elders,  analysis 
about  the  progress  of  our 
movements  and  the  current 
status  of  older  people  in  the  gay 
activism:  these  and  many  other 
topics  would  be  welcome. 

If  at  all  possible,  please  type 
your  essays  (double-spaced  with 
inch  margins).  Also  please  in¬ 
clude  a  day  phone  number  in 
case  we  need  to  call  with  ques¬ 
tions.  GCN ’s  address  is  167 
Tremont  St.,  Boston  021 II; 
send  elder’s  articles  to  the 
Features  Editor. 


JOHN  GRAVES 
Ph  D.,  L.S.W. 


Phone 

(617) 

266-2069 


Counseling  6 
Psychotherapy 

42  THE  FENWAY 
BOSTON.  M A  0221.5 


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North  Americans  Give  Glimpses  of  Gay  and  Les 

' Don't  Blame  the  Sandinistas  for  Centuries  of  Ignorance' 


By  Gerry  Scoppettuolo 

North  American  lesbians  and  gay  men  have  provid¬ 
ed  incredible  support  for  the  current  intense  efforts  of 
the  Nicaraguan  people  to  preserve  their  right  of  self- 
determination  under  the  Sandinista  leadership. 
Historically,  we  have  been  at  the  center  of  movements 
for  progressive  social  change,  and  this  is  true  both  in 
Nicaragua  as  well  as  here  in  the  U.S. 

The  presence  of  so  many  of  us  in  the  Solidarity 
movement  and  the  Pledge  of  Resistance,  the  special  gay 
brigades  to  Nicaragua  last  year,  the  many  stories  in  GCN 
and  other  lesbian  and  gay  publications,  the  work  of  the 
gay  male  affinity  group,  United  Fruit  Company,  etc., 
testify  to  our  concern  and  the  special  role  our  move¬ 
ment  has  taken  on.  (The  particular  contributions  of  les¬ 
bians  would  be  a  special  story  in  itself.) 

Although  North  American  lesbians  and  gays  have 
provided  great  support  to  the  Nicaraguans,  our  involve¬ 
ment  has  not  always  meant  that  many  of  us  understand 
what  gay  Nicaraguans  feel  or  what  they  want. 
Understanding  gay  life  in  any  country  often  depends  on 
who  is  looking,  and  who  knows  the  customs,  the 
language  and  the  culture.  There  are  those  in  our  move¬ 
ment  who  have  leveled  charges  of  homophobia  at  Latin 
socialist  nations  like  Cuba,  and  occasionally  at 
Nicaragua,  which  has  a  mixed  socialist/capitalist 
economy.  Films  like  Improper  Conduct  and  books  like 
Allen  Hunter's  Cays  Under  the  Cuban  Revolution  argue 
that  Cuba  and,  by  extension,  all  revolutionary  societies 
are  literally  concentration  camps  for  gay  people. 

These  analyses  provide  a  distorted  picture  of  the  ac¬ 
tual  situation  in  countries  like  Cuba.  They  totally  leave 
off  the  hook  neo-fascist  regimes  like  Paraguay  and 
Chile.  They  fail  to  speak  to  sources  of  oppressive  at¬ 
titudes  inherited  from  the  past,  such  as  the  influence  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Equally  missing  is  the  ad¬ 
mittance  of  the  cultural  bias  of  an  anglo  North  American 
gay  liberation  movement  casting  its  often  middle-class 
values  on  another  culture. 

In  the  process  of  our  close  involvement  with  the 
Nicaraguan  people's  struggle,  I  hope  we  have  learned 
something  about  the  struggle  against  oppression  in 
another  culture  —  information  that  can  help  us  in  our 
own  struggle  for  liberation.  Much  of  my  understanding 
comes  from  a  rather  remarkable  person,  whose  desire 
to  gain  North  American  lesbian/gay  support  for  a 
humanitarian  aid  project  in  Nicaragua  prompts  this 
story. 

Maxine  Shaw  is  a  41  -year  old  lesbian  grandmother 
from  Boston.  For  over  a  year  she  has  been  living  in  the 
Nicaraguan  province  of  Leon  and  teaching  in  the 
Nicaraguan  Ministry  of  Education.  A  bilingual  educator, 
Maxine  teaches  basic  skills  to  children  in  a  school  near 
the  El  Carmen  farm.  In  February,  1985,  she  and  I  were 
part  of  the  Fanny  Lou  Hamer  Brigade,  which  went  to 
Nicaragua  to  pick  cotton  on  that  same  farm.  At 
Maxine's  urging,  we  established  within  our  brigade  the 
Harvey  Milk  Squad  to  reflect  the  large  number  (25  per¬ 
cent)  of  queers  in  the  group. 

Maxine  returned  to  Nicaragua  in  July  of  1985  to 
teach  fulltime  in  Leon,  giving  up  her  tenured  position  in 
the  Boston  school  system.  She  now  teaches  36  children 
ages  six  to  seventeen  for  ten  hours  a  day  in  the  same 
schoolhouse  in  which  our  brigade  slept  during  the  cot¬ 
ton  season.  In  addition  to  her  solidarity  work,  Maxine 
was  very  interested  in  finding  the  gay  community  in 
Nicaragua. 

Working  with  the  Nicaraguan  people  for  over  a 
year,  she  began  to  learn  about  the  life  of  lesbians  and 
gay  men  in  Nicaragua  in  the  context  of  the  total  society 
there.  She  has  had  occasion  to  get  to  know  Nicaraguan 
lesbians  and  gay  men,  including  Sandinistas,  and  to 


spreading  AIDS.  When  Maxine  did  eventually  come  out 
to  her  host  family,  their  response  had  a  familiar  ring. 
"To  be  very  honest,"  her  host  told  Maxine,  "if  you  had 
told  me  that  when  you  first  came  here,  I  would  have 
never  let  you  in  my  house.  But  now  you're  family,  so  it's 
okay." 

It  soon  became  clear  to  Maxine,  from  further 
discussions  with  her  host  family,  that  there  are  a 
number  of  well-known  people  in  Nicaragua  who  are 
generally  known  to  be  gay  and  who  are  widely 
respected  —  even  by  straight  Nicaraguans.  This 
phenomenon  of  being  "openly  closeted,"  is  a  refuge 
familiar  to  many  North  American  politicians  and  enter¬ 
tainers. 


witness  the  role  of  the  Sandinista  government,  as  well  as 
that  of  the  religious  right  and  the  Catholic  Church.  And 
she  has  seen  first  hand  the  effects  the  U.S. -sponsored 
contra  war  is  having  on  Nicaraguan  lesbians  and  gay 
men. 

The  biggest  change  for  gay  people  in  Nicaragua  is 
that  the  state  is  no  longer  their  enemy.  There  is  no  state 
law  against  homosexuality  in  Nicaragua,  and  recently 
Interior  Minister  Tomas  Borge  promised  gay  Boston  City 
Councilor  David  Scondras  and  others  that  there  will 
be  none.  But  such  stands  by  the  government  do  not  in¬ 
stantly  change  the  social  conditions  faced  by  lesbians 
and  gay  men,  conditions  left  over  from  decades  of  U.S. 
control  and  Somoza's  tyranny  and  the  continuing 
repressive  role  of  the  war,  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
social  tradition. 

During  our  time  on  the  cotton  brigade  at  El  Carmen, 
we  had  befriended  a  Sandinista  military  recruiter, 
Francesco,  who  was  motorcycling  through  the  coun¬ 
tryside  to  attract  people  into  the  military  to  combat  the 
contras.  When  we  first  asked  him  about  gay  people  in 
Nicaragua,  before  we  came  out  to  him,  he  was  reluctant 
to  discuss  it  wjth  us.  We  gave  him  copies  of  GCN  (the 
issue  with  "Dykes  and  Fags  in  Nicaragua"  on  the 
cover),  as  well  as  Spanish  translation  anti-KKK  flyers  pro¬ 
duced  by  Gay  and  Lesbian  Activists  (GALA)  of  Western 
Massachusetts.  He  was  intrigued.  The  next  day  he 
returned  to  the  farm,  and  after  the  day's  harvest,  he 
revealed  to  us  that  his  brother,  whom  he  described  as  a 
bisexual,  had  been  killed  by  Somoza's  National  Guard 
during  the  Sandinista  insurrection. 

When  Maxine  returned  to  Nicaragua,  she  spent  her 
weekends  in  the  city  of  Leon  and  taught  at  El  Carmen 
during  the  week.  Of  course,  Maxine  did  not  feel  com¬ 
fortable  coming  out  as  a  grammar  school  teacher  in  a 
foreign  country  and  culture.  The  local  compesinos  ex¬ 
plained  her  apparent  disinterest  in  men  in  a  manner 
perfectly  understandable  in  a  profoundly  Catholic 
country:  she  was  dubbed  "La  Virgen  Maria"  (the  Virgin 
Mary).  She  also  hesitated  to  come  out  to  the  Nicaraguan 
family  that  served  as  her  weekend  hosts  in  Leon.  At 
that  time,  she  found  that  the  right-wing  paper  La  Prensa, 
the  darling  of  the  Reagan  Administration,  was  en¬ 
couraging  great  nervousness  about  AIDS  with  daily 
stories  about  Rock  Hudson  or  rumors  about  U.S. 
soldiers,  or  possibly  North  American  brigadistas, 


Over  time,  Maxine  found  the  lesbians  and  gay  men 
she  was  looking  for  in  Nicaragua.  As  Maxine  recalls, 
"One  day  Mary  [my  friend  from  New  Haven  now  living 
in  Leon]  was  going  to  this  dance  place  with  a 
Nicaraguan  family,  and  she  asked  me  if  I  would  go 
along.  We  walked  into  this  place  in  Leon  and  we're  sit¬ 
ting  there  and  there's  a  whole  tableful  of  dykes.  And  I 
look  at  her  and  she  looks  at  me,  and  we  just  knew  it.  We 
had  to  make  contact."  It  was  obvious  that  it  was 
primarily  a  straight  bar  and  that  women  could  dance 
together  only  on  the  fast  songs  (just  as  many  "straight" 
North  American  women  can  be  found  dancing  the  fast 
ones  at  taverns  in  the  early  part  of  the  evening).  One  of 
the  local  women  told  Maxine  that  there  was  a  bar  in 
Managua  where  women  could  dance  slow  dances 
together,  a  bar  called  "Los  Millones."  Maxine  also 
learned  from  these  women  how  the  housing  shortage, 
which  has  grown  as  a  result  of  the  contra  war,  has  made 
it  difficult  for  lovers. to  find  privacy  to  spend  time  with 
each  other.  The  expectation  that  single  people  will  live 
with  their  families  is  not  only  an  economic  necessity,but 
is  also  fostered  by  the  Catholic  Church  and  its  notions  of 
traditional  roles. 

The  centuries-old  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  in 
Nicaragua  (the  cathedral  at  Leon  was  built  in  1 565)  rein¬ 
forces  these  "traditional"  values  and  also  supports  the 
contras  who,  with  CIA  funding,  have  killed  over  3000 
peasants  in  the  past  five  years.  This  conservative  in¬ 
fluence,  especially  as  enunciated  by  Cardinal  Obando  y 
Bravo,  is  acting  as  a  brake  on  the  socialist  social  agenda 
being  advanced  by  the  Sandinistas.  Maxine  observed 
this  struggle  as  it  recently  took  shape  around  the  abor¬ 
tion  issue.  "The  Frente  would  like  to  push  the  abortion 
issue  right  now  because  so  many  women  are  dying  of  il¬ 
legal  abortions.  There  have  been  stories  in  Barricada 
[the  Sandinista  newspaper]  and  on  television  testing  the 
political  waters.  There  are  also  discussions  in  the 
cabildos  [town  meetings]  throughout  the  country  where 


)ian  Life  in  Nicaragua 


the  new  constitution  is  being  written.  The  religious  right 
comes  to  these  meetings  and  says  they  want  written  into 
the  constitution  the  rights  of  the  fetus.  Anyone  who 
wants  to  speak  at  these  meetings  can  speak.  The 
Catholic  Church  is  pushing  right  to  life," 

Maxine  has  found  a  supportive  gay  community  in 
Nicaragua.  She  and  her  friend  Mary  were  recently  in¬ 
vited  to  visit  with  some  gay  men  in  Leon.  "We  went 
over  to  their  house  for  lunch.  They  have  a  house  and  a 
small  gay  community  has  evolved  around  them.  After 
talking  in  circles  for  a  long  time,  everybody  came  out  to 
everybody.  They  are  wonderful  people.  They  are  San- 
dinistas.  Our  host's  previous  lover  served  in  the  army. 
He  was  killed  by  the  contras  in  1 983  near  Honduras.  He 
was  in  his  twenties.  As  gay  people,  these  people  feel 
that  the  biggest  oppression  they  face  is  the  war.  It  op¬ 
presses  because  of  the  housing  situation;  it  forces  peo¬ 
ple  to  live  with  their  families."  These  Nicaraguan  men 
explained  that  the  war  makes  it  harder  to  bring  up  gay 
issues.  They  also  pointed  to  the  religious  right  as  the  big¬ 
gest  enemy  of  the  revolution  and  one  of  the  major 
obstacles  to  overcoming  the  oppression  of  gay  people. 

Despite  the  clear  evidence  that  the  Catholic  Church 
and  traditions  of  the  past  are  the  source  of  lingering 
socially  oppressive  attitudes,  it  is  often  the  Sandinista 
government  which  finds  it  must  answer  charges  of 
homophobia.  Yet  despite  charges  by  some  on  the  U.S. 
left  that  socialism  is  anti-democratic  and  anti-gay,  there 
is  no  state  law  against  homosexuality  in  Nicaragua. 
What  is  left  is  social  stigma,  an  inheritance  from  the  past 
intensified  by  a  strong  Roman  Catholic  tradition.  In  the 
U.S.  Cardinals  Law  and  O'Connor  work  intensely 


against  gay  rights  laws  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York; 
Cardinal  Obano  y  Bravo  would  do  the  same  in 
Nicaragua. 

Some  gay  men  and  lesbians  feel  they  can,  because 
ot  their  solidarity  work,  properly  evaluate  the  status  of 
gay  rights  in  Nicaragua,  even  though  they  have  little 
knowledge  of  life  as  it  is  lived  there.  Can  we  judge  how 
gay  and  lesbian  Nicaraguans  choose  to  carry  on  their 
struggle?  A  long-time  gay  activist,  Armando  Gaitan  of  El 
Comite  Latino  de  Lesbianas  y  Homosexuales  de  Boston 
has  been  to  Nicaragua  and  notes,  "You  know,  a  North 
American  can't  pick  everything  up  they  think  they  can. 
Many  brigadistas  would  go  to  Nicaragua  and  say  they 
wouldn't  see  gay  people  there.  I  found  gay  people  in 
Nicaragua  on  the  first  day  I  was  there.  You  have  to  know 
the  language  and  culture." 

Maxine  Shaw  has  been  learning  about  gay  life 
under  the  Sandinistas,  and  she  has  been  teaching  com- 
pesino  children  how  to  read  and  write.  Now  she  is  part 
of  the  Nicaraguan  gay  community.  She  is  one  of  the 
many  North  American  lesbian  and  gay  people  who  see 
something  very  incredibly  wonderful  and  alive  in  what 
the  Sandinistas  are  accomplishing.  She  believes,  as 
many  of  us  do,  that  if  imperialism  were  to  return  to 
Nicaragua,  life  for  all  people  there  would  suffer  greatly 
in  a  terrible  bloodbath.  Also  to  die  would  be  the  now 
fervent  hope  that  if  socialist  liberation  can  prevail  in 
Nicaragua  —  for  gay  and  straight  alike  —  then  there 
might  be  more  gay  North  Americans  willing  to  consider 
revolutionary  socialist  solutions  —  and  not  just  in  Cen¬ 
tral  America. 

A  request  from  Maxine:  The  Ministry  of  Education  in 
the  sub-region  of  Leon  has  an  urgent  need  for  a  vehicle  so 
that  young  teachers  in  the  province  can  receive  supervi¬ 
sion  and  training.  (At  least  30  of  these  teachers  have  been 
killed  by  the  contras  in  recent  years.)  Donations  are 
desperately  needed.  We  are  trying  to  raise  $10,000. 
Please  send  anything  you  can  to:  Muddy  River  Affinity 
Croup  do  B.  Schram,  195  Davis  Ave.,  Brookline,  MA 
02146. 


HONDURAS 


I  •  Ocotal 


NICARAGUA 


•  Jinotego 
•Motogolpa 


‘The  Revolution  Became 
My  Personal  Liberation  ’ 


Managua,  Nicaragua 
October  18,  1986 

Dear  GCN: 

I  am  writing  this  letter  from  Managua, 
Nicaragua.  I  am  spending  seven  weeks  here, 
compiling  material  for  a  book  on  sexual  politics  in 
the  New  Nicaragua.  As  I  talked  to  psychologists, 
artists,  abortion  rights  advocates,  gay  men  and  les¬ 
bians,  sex  educators,  and  mothers  of  the  martyrs,  I 
have  been  uniformly  impressed  by  the  progress 
and  hope  in  such  a  beleaguered  society.  This 
hope  can  be  so  easily  squashed  unless  we,  as  U.S. 
citizens,  speak  out. 

People  here  are  friendly  and  open  to  U.S. 
citizens.  1  am  constantly  surprised  by  this,  con¬ 
sidering  that  it  is  our  government  that  is  intent  on 
overthrowing  their  democratic  society.  The 
Nicaraguans  didn't  overthrow  a  U.S. -backed 
dynasty  in  order  to  be  recaptured  by  the  contras. 
They  are  prepared  to  fight  to  the  death  to  retain 
their  national  sovereignty. 

In  spite  of  this  war,  changes  are  happening 
rapidly  in  the  fields  of  women's  rights  and  sexual 
liberation.  While  we  are  fighting  to  retain  the 
rights  that  we  have  already  won,  feminism  in 
Nicaragua  is  flourishing.  Everyday  the  newspapers 
have  articles  about  women's  rights  and  dialogue 
freely  occurs. 

National  Sandinista  Television  has  a  sex- 
education  series  under  the  auspices  of  the  San¬ 
dinista  Youth  with  the  assistance  of  Auxiliadora 
Marenco,  Nicaragua's  top  sexologist.  They  are 
covering  family  planning,  lesbian  and  gay 
lifestyles,  and  abortion  among  the  twelve  pro¬ 
grams,  all  with  a  progressive  feminist  perspective. 
Because  of  war  shortages  and  the  U.S.  economic 
blockade,  they  can  only  afford  six  video  cassettes. 
They  must  tape  over  old  programs,  thereby  losing 
the  first  sex-education  TV  series  in  the  history  of 
Latin  America. 

I  interviewed  Milu  Vargas  who  sits  on  the  Na¬ 
tional  Board  of  AMNLAE  (the  women's  union). 
She  is  also  head  of  the  legal  team  for  the  National 
Assembly.  She  told  me,  "I  am  amazed  that  Presi¬ 
dent  Reagan  continues  to  refer  to  us  as  a 
totalitarian  dictatorship.  I  read  of  your  Supreme 
Court's  sodomy  decision.  Is  this  a  democracy 
when  the  most  basic  individual  right  of  its  gay 
citizens,  the  right  of  privacy,  can  be  treated  in 
such  a  way?"  On  the  other  hand,  Nicaragua  has 
no  laws  or  official  repression  of  its  gay  citizens. 

In  the  park  where  gay  men  hang  out,  I  met  a 
guy  who  had  been  stripped  and  tortured  in  front 
of  his  high  school  by  Somoza's  National  Guard. 
Where  one  might  expect  small  talk,  instead  he 
showed  me  his  scars.  The  citizens  of  Nicaragua 
bear  many  such  scars. 

I  have  talked  to  gay  men  who  are  soldiers, 
shopkeepers,  artists,  dancers  and  waiters.  I  have 
talked  to  lesbians  who  are  video  artists, 
psychologists,  chauffeurs  and  secretaries.  The  vast 
majority  are  one  hundred  percent  behind  the  San¬ 
dinistas.  Some  are  in  high  levels  of  political 
responsibility.  All  of  them  want  this  message  sent 
to  North  American  gays  and  feminists,  "if  you 
want  to  support  your  sisters  and  brothers  in 
Nicaragua,  then  do  everything  you  can  to  stop  our 
murder  at  the  hands  of  Reagan." 

Gays  and  lesbians  are  starting  to  organize. 
They  are  joining  the  worldwide  struggle  against 
social  and  religious  prejudice  and  social  invisibili¬ 
ty.  As  in  all  poor  countries,  economics  exacer¬ 
bates  their  problems.  Due  to  poverty  and  housing 
shortages,  most  must  live  with  their  families.  They 
lack  our  mobility.  What  they  don't  lack  is  con¬ 
sciousness.  Their  revolution  here  has  opened  the 
closet  door.  We  must  insure  that  the  contra,  the 
congress  and  the  C.I.A.  don't  turn  this  closet  door 
into  a  coffin  lid. 

One  guy  told  me  that  he  would  go  to  student 
marches  before  the  Triumph  of  the  Revolution 
hoping  that  the  National  Guard  bullets  would  hit 
him.  He  felt  totally  isolated.  He  then  realized  that 
"the  market  woman  may  not  be  a  lesbian.  The 
campesino  may  not  be  a  homosexual.  But  we  all 
had  problems,  no  food  to  eat  and  no  money  for 


Puerto  Cob«za»«i 


San  Carlo* 


—  J' 


clothing  and  shelter.  For  me,  the  T riumph  became 
also  my  personal  liberation.  I  came  out  and  I  am 
never  going  back." 

As  feminists,  as  lesbians,  as  gay  men,  we  have 
to  strengthen  our  peace  efforts.  Our  struggle  is 
global.  As  hard  as  we  must  struggle,  we  also  need 
to  assist  those  whose  struggle  is  literally  one  of  life 
and  death.  And  we  must  remember  that  the  forces 
that  would  like  to  strangle  democracy  in 
Nicaragua  are  the  same  forces  that  were  behind 
the  sodomy  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  We 
must  not  look  back  some  day  on  the  smoldering 
ruins  of  the  new  Nicaragua  regretting  our  inac¬ 
tion.  In  the  name  of  peace  and  autonomy  for 
Nicaragua,  and  openly,  in  the  name  of  feminism 
and  gay  liberation,  please  speak  out  and  act  now 
for  freedom. 

With  love,  from  Nicaragua  Libre, 

Tede  Matthews 


‘Gays  Here  Will  Organize 
Because  They  Have  To’ 

Managua,  Nicaragua 
October  27,  1986 

Dear  Loie: 

...I  can't  believe  I  have  just  under  two 
months  left  here  [in  Nicaragua].  I  feel  like  I  have 
just  arrived.  In  response  to  some  of  your  article 
suggestions:  AIDS  is  often  used  as  an  excuse  to  tor¬ 
ment  gay  men,  but  no  one  can  come  up  with  any 
actual  cases  in  the  country.  Yes,  there's  a  thriving 
male  prostitution  system  here,  but  I  haven't 
researched  it  yet.  To  my  knowledge,  homosex¬ 
uality  has  not  been  mentioned  in  any  of  the  con¬ 
stitutional  proceedings.  The  closest  thing  to  it  is  a 
letter  El  Nuevo  Diaro  printed  from  a  mother 
whose  gay  son  fled  to  Mexico  after  being  told  1 985 
was  the  year  homosexuals  would  be  killed  to 
make  soap.  She  pleads  for  constitutional  protec¬ 
tion.  .  .The  constitutional  situation. .  .is  exciting 
for  feminists,  by  the  way,  since  it  makes  the  ERA 
look  like  Jim  Crow  laws. 

. .  .The  whole  situation  is  actually  rather  ex¬ 
citing.  People  are  homophobic  out  of  ignorance,  it 
seems  (well,  that's  true  everywhere,  but...).  I 
haven't  heard  any  major  bible-thumping  or  blam¬ 
ing  gays  for  the  ills  of  the  world  (except  AIDS 
[SIDA  here]  of  course).  I  wish  I  knew  more  gay 
history  but  it  seems  to  be  an  awful  lot  like  the  U.S. 
in  the  1950s  and  '60s.  Men  are  split  into  "men 
men"  and  gays.  The  former  are  butch,  the  latter 
fern.  Butch  men,  even  if  they  are  100  percent 
homosexual,  are  not  considered  gay.  This  isn't 
true  for  women. 

. .  .Unfortunately  I  haven't  had  a  chance  to 
talk  to  any  lesbians  about  being  gay.  The  women 
are  much  more  closeted  here  than  the  men  and  I 
haven't  been  able  to  talk  openly  with  any  of  them, 
even  though  they  all  know  I'm  gay.  I'm  not  sup¬ 
posed  to  know  about  them. 

.  .  .Things  are  going  to  explode  here  soon. 
Gays  will  organize  because  they  have  to.  Even¬ 
tually  the  revolution  will  get  around  to  them  —  like 
it  will  to  the  disabled  —  because  people  won't 
allow  themselves  to  be  left  out. 

Take  care.  I'll  send  this  [article]  stuff  out 
soon .... 

Cyndi  Norman 


These  essays  are  the  first  in  a  series  of  articles 
which  consider  the  effects  of  the  Sandinista 
revolution  on  the  lives  of  lesbians  and  gay  men  in 
Nicaragua.  Look  for  future  articles  in  December 
and  January. 


Page  10  •  Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986 


Dykes  Pump  Iron 


Sweating,  groaning  and  grinding  their  hips,  women  weight-lifted 
proudly  and  danced  flirtatiously  to  benefit  Bodyworks,  a  Boston  area 
gym  popular  with  lesbians.  Eight  women  participated  in  the 
November  19  bench  press  competition,  cheered  on  by  60  spectators  at 
the  1270,  one  of  Boston’s  lesbian  and  gay  bars. 

The  contestants,  most  competing  for  the  first  time,  were  to  lift  30 
pounds  under  their  body  weight  for  as  many  repetitions  as  possible. 
Receiving  trophies  were  Cindy  “Britt”  Taffel,  benching  120  lbs.  21 
times;  Susan  Tatelman,  lifting  95  lbs.  for  20  reps;  and  Ruth  Slater, 
pictured  above,  raising  85  lbs.  18  times.  Dancing  followed  the  com¬ 
petition. 

Bodyworks  Gym,  opened  four  years  ago  by  Latina  lesbian 
Margarita  Ascencio,  aims  to  serve  women  and  men  of  all  sizes,  colors 
and  athletic  abilities.  Bodyworks  offers  a  unique  combination  of 
structured  workouts  and  attentive  coaching  for  competitive  athletes, 
and  a  playful  atmosphere  for  those  who  come  simply  to 
have  fun,  release  stress  and  keep'in  shape.  Originally  a  women’s  gym, 
Bodyworks  offers  specific  co-ed  hours,  geared  largely  toward  gay 
men.  To  register  for  an  introductory  workshop,  call  (617)  576-1493  or 
write  53  River  Street,  Cambridge,  MA,  02139. 

—  Laurie  Sherman 


New  Zealand  Ousts  Rightwingers 


Continued  from  page  3 

“style”  of  the  fundamentalists 
that  really  alienated  New  Zea¬ 
landers  and  cemented  the  impres¬ 
sion  that  the  real  battle  was 
against,  in  Alison  Laurie’s  words, 
“U.S.  moral  imperialism.”  Logan 
told  GCN  that  the  rally,  held  to 
present  the  signed  petitions,  “had 
flags  and  sashes.  It  was  very 
Madison  Avenue  and  alien  to  our 
easy-going  ethos.” 

Up  until  that  point,  a  little  over 
half  of  New  Zealanders  said  they 
supported  law  reform.  The  num¬ 
bers  began  increasing  after  the  ral¬ 
ly,  until  they  reached  64  percent  in 
favor  at  the  date  of  the  July  9 
Parliament  vote.  Despite  the  sub¬ 
stantial  public  support,  the  actual 
vote  by  MPs  wasjiarrow  —  49-44. 

Exhilarated  lesbian  and  gay 
activists  say  they  can  feel  a 
difference  in  the  public  view  of 
homosexuality.  Logan  said  part  of 
the  new  self-confidence  comes 
from  the  way  lesbians  and  gay  men 
fought  for  reform.  “Our  tactic 
was  not  to  apologize  for  being  gay, 
not  to  hide.  When  the  nasty  gay 
bashings  [happened],  the  televi¬ 
sion  showed  us  practicing  self- 
defense.  We  didn’t  like  the  strat¬ 
egy  of  sweetness  and  light.”  He 
added,  “We  waged  a  campaign  to 
make  our  lives  better  —  no  one 
gave  us  anything.” 

Despite  some  tensions  in  certain 
cities,  Logan  also  believes  the  cam¬ 
paign  brought  the  lesbian  and  gay 
communities  together.  “There  will 
always  be  areas  and  •  activities 
where  lesbians  and  gay  men  will 
want  to  be  separate,  but  there  is  a 


much  more  cooperative  spirit.” 
He  said  that  some  disputes  over 
organizing  strategy  had  occurred 
in  Auckland,  which  is  “very  com¬ 
mercial.  There  are  more  wealthy 
gay  men  [than  in  other  cities],  and 
there  was  a  different,  more  respec¬ 
table  campaign  than  for  example 
in  Wellington.  [In  Auckland], 
there  were  more  disputes  between 


lesbians  and  gay  men.  Lesbians 
were  not  as  visible.” 

Lesbians  and  gay  men  are  now 
turning  their  attention  to  enacting 
laws  prohibiting  discrimination 
based  on  sexual  preference  laws 
that  had  originally  been  included 
in  the  reform  bill. 

— filed  from  Boston 


Computer  Network 


Continued  from  page  1 
vice-president  of  Quantum  Link, 
Steve  Case,  explained  the  move  by 
saying  that  the  company  was  not  in 
business  to  take  stands  on  issues. 
Donna  Atkinson,  a  Quantum  Link 
employee  who  is  in  charge  of  the 
clubs  on  the  network  and  had  in¬ 
itiated  the  formation  of  the  Alter¬ 
native  Lifestyles  club,  told  Lange- 
ly  that  Quantum  Link  was  no 
longer  promoting  the  controver¬ 
sial  groups. 

Rob  Baker,  who  served  as  host 
for  the  Alternative  Lifestyles  club, 
received  assurances  from  Case  that 
the  management  of  Quantum  Link 
supported  the  club,  but  that  there 
had  been  pressure  from  the 
marketing  division  to  lessen  the 
visibility  of  the  group.  Baker,  who 
felt  the  club  should  be  fully 
restored  and  listed  in  the  directory 
with  other  clubs,  subsequently 
resigned  as  host . 

Inquiries  concerning  the  source 
of  the  pressure  to  drop  the  Alter¬ 
native  Lifestyles  club  revealed  a 
connection  to  a  Christian-owned 


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computer  equipment  outlet  in  Il¬ 
linois  called  Protecto.  According 
to  Baker  and  several  bartenders 
for  the  network,  Protecto  has  a 
large  financial  interest  in  Com¬ 
modore  Computers,  which  in  turn 
has  been  promoting  Quantum 
Link. 

Langley  explained  that  Com¬ 
modore’s  perilous  financial  state 
resulted  in  strong  connections 
among  the  three  companies.  Com¬ 
modore  and  Quantum  Link  had  an 
agreement  which  permitted  only 
Commodore  owners  access  to  the 
Quantum  Link  network.  Com¬ 
modore  promoted  the  network  by 
including  sample  disks  and 
subscriber  information  with  all  its 
products. 

Protecto  reportedly  offered  to 
pay  off  Commodore’s  debts  and 
provide  low-interest  loans  to  them 
in  exchange  for  the  lowest 
wholesale  price  on  Commodore 
equipment  and  free  advertising  in 
Commodore’s  magazine.  Protecto 
also  used  the  Quantum  Link  net¬ 
work  to  advertise  its  product  line. 

A  worker  at  Protecto  who  did 
not  identify  himself  admitted  that 
Protecto  is  “a  Christian  organiza¬ 
tion  started  to  raise  funds  for  a 
church,”  and  that  they  “had  until 
recently  boycotted  Quantum  Link 
due  to  the  existence  of  an  Alter¬ 
native  Lifestyles  program  which 
had  open  access.  We  [Protecto] 
frown  upon  that  type  of  activity.” 

Executives  at  Quantum  Link 
refused  to  comment  on  decisions 
concerning  the  Alternative 
Lifestyles  club. 

In  late  August  of  this  year, 
Quantum  Link  posted  a  notice  on 
the  bulletin  board  stating  that  the 
Alternative  Lifestyle  club  was  be¬ 
ing  discontinued,  along  with  its 
bulletin  board.  Paul  A.  Moscatt, 
Jr.,  employed  by  Quantum  Link 
as  a  systems  operator  and  com¬ 
puter  graphics  specialist,  protested 
the  action  by  sending  an  open 
message  on  the  system.  He  said 
that  if  Quantim  Link  wanted  to 
eliminate  everything  that  is  gay, 
they  should  know  that  he  is  gay  as 
well.  Moscatt  was  fired  the  next 
day,  and  his  name  was  removed 
from  the  system’s  directory.  He 
was  told  that  he  was  fired  for  “rude 
behavior  on  the  system.” 

After  the  gay  and  lesbian  club 
was  eliminated,  the  other  “con¬ 
troversial”  groups  —  for  Chris¬ 
tians,  the  military,  and  the  police 
—  were  returned  to  the  regular 
club  listings  and  the  newsletters. 
The  alternative  lifestyles  room, 
which  had  been  reduced  to  week¬ 
end  nights  only,  has  recently  been 
extended  to  every  night  of  the 
week. 


ijork  business  Quide 


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BOSTON,  MA  02199 
(617)353-1500 


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P.O.  Box  11,  Cambridge,  MA,  02238,  (617)  782-8894 


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dip  &  sow 


Page  12  •  Gay  Community  News,  Nov.  30-Dec.  6,  1986 


Christmas  Cat  Showl 
December  6  &  7,  9-5 

Local  103  I.B.E.W.  —  Freeport  Hall 
256  Freeport  St.,  Dorchester 

(adjacent  to  SE  Ex’way  —  1  blk  from 
J.F.K.  Library  &  U.  Mass.) 


Adults  $3.50;  Children  $2.50 


Over  250  cats 


Kittens  for  sale 


“Sphynx”  cat  on  dis^  ^ 

- - -  | 

50  cent  discount  with  this 


Lesbian  Media  Artists  Weigh  Choices 


Continued  from  page  6 
That  old  cinematic  formula  of  Boy 
finds/loses/gets  Girl  can  gain  new 
life  in  the  marketplace  as  a  lesbian 
romance,  Merck  suggested.  Even 
if  the  Boy  is  really  a  Girl,  the  same, 
heterosexually-defined  roles  re¬ 
main. 


Boy/Girl  differences,  Merck 
pointed  out,  are  either  minimal  or 
completely  untrue  in  Jane  Rule’s 
Desert  of  the  Heart,  from  which 
the  film  was  adapted.  Far  from 
enhancing  lesbian  culture  in  the 
eyes  of  the  general  public,  movies 


lesbians  and  gays,  as  people  of  col¬ 
or,  as  poor  people,  as  older  peo¬ 
ple,  have  to  do  with  those  young, 
rich,  white  heterosexuals  beamed 
at  us  every  day?  And  what  can  we 
learn  from  our  ambivalence? 

“The  bottom  line,’’  said  Black 


... eager  to  get  on  with  our  work  as  artists  and  critics ... 


For  instance  in  Desert  Hearts, 
the  seductress  appears  as  a  tough, 
uneducated  neo-cowgirl,  with  a 
sexual  “Past.”  Her  ladylike  quar¬ 
ry,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  dainty 
blond,  highly  educated,  from  the 
civilized  East,  with  no  sexual 
history  to  speak  of.  These  essential 


Boston  Guy  Men’s  Chorus  in  Concert 

Special  Guest:  Fenwick  Smith,  Flute  Robert  Barney,  Music  Director 

Sunday,  December  14, 1986  3PM 
Jordan  Hall  at  New  England  Conservatory 

Tickets  $10,  8,  6  Jordan  Hall  Box  Office:  (617)  536-2412 

Also  available  at  Glad  Day  Bookstore  and  Bostix  (Faneuil  Hall) 

Cocktail  Reception  Immediately  Following 
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like  Desert  Hearts  ultimately  serve 
the  interests  of  the  straight  media. 
As  someone  said  in  the  discussion 
following  the  panel,  “Nobody  can 
sell  heterosexuality  to  heterosex¬ 
uals  like  homosexuals  can.” 

But  gay  or  straight,  we’ve  all 
spent  years  bathing  under  the  elec¬ 
tronic  rays  of  the  mass  media.  One 
random  L’Eggs  commercial  still 
has  the  power  to  reach  deep,* 
psychological  recesses  that  have 
remained  closed  to  persistent  years 
of  Life  Itself.  Is  there  any  hope  of 
changing  the  images  we  find  dull 
or  offensive?  What  do  our  lives  as 


independent  filmmaker  Ayoka 
Chenzira  to  a  predominantly  white 
audience,  “is  who  is  making  the 
movies?” 

That  Viewpoints  was  able  to 
generate  such  profound  am¬ 
bivalence  might  be  the  truest 
measure  of  its  success.  And,  even 
if  the  product  is  the  audience, 
some  of  us  products  may  still  have 
enough  faculties  left  to  keep  ask¬ 
ing  questions.  Who  is  making  the 
movies?  What  movies  do  we  want 
to  make?  And,  finally,  who  is 
“we?” 


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an  affirmative  counseling  service  for 
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REAL  PAPER  AWARDS 

Best  Auto  Mechanic 


J&S  Automotive 

277  Northampton  Street 

Boston 

It  looks  like  a  big  commercial  garage, 
but  there  are  all  these  weird  little 
things  about  it  Reggae  music  is 
blasting  away,  signs  for  political  and 
union  meetings  are  taped  up.  the 
mechanic  might  be  a  woman,  and 
sometimes  it's  hard  to  find  anyone  in 
charge  J&S  has  been  Boston's  hip- 
pest  garage  for  years  and  years  and 


for  the  last  few  years,  it  s  also  been 
the  best.  Even  when  they  didn't  know 
how  to  fix  everything,  they  never 
cheated  anybody  or  covered  up  So. 
over  the  years,  they  kept  learning  new 
makes  and  new  techniques,  and  now 
can  repair  about  anything  Their 
speciality  ts  still  the  prepollution 
equipment  on  Dodge  Darts  and 
Plymouth  Valiants,  those  classics  of 
reliability.  But  they're  ready  for 
anything  and  did  most  of  the  work  on 
the  antique  ‘vehicles  for  the  movie 
The  Brinks  Job 


(Reprinted  from  Real  Paper.  '  Best  of  Boston.  ''  Fall.  1980) 

BODY  WORK  TOO 

J&S  AUTOMOTIVE,  277  Northampton  St. 

One  Block  From  Mass.  Ave  Busline  2670300 


C/4L€NDhR 


November  29 
to 

December  14 


29  Saturday 


Boston  —  Diane  Ponzio  Trio 

Somewhere  Else,  295  Franklin 
11PM.  Info:  432-7730. 


perform. 
St.  9  & 


30  Sunday 

Boston  —  Richard  Vincent’s  erotic  stained 
glass  premiere  series.  Fritz,  Chandler  St. 
at  Berkeley.  Through  12/13. 

december  1  monday 

Cambridge  —  Lesbian  entrepreneurs’  sup¬ 
port  group.  Daughters  of  Bilitis,  Old  Cam¬ 
bridge  Baptist  Church,  1151  Mass.  Ave. 
8PM.  Info:  661-3633. 

Boston  —  Committee  on  Gay  &  Lesbian 
Issues  of  the  National  Ass’n  of  Social 
Workers.  Meets  first  Monday  of  each 
month,  except  holidays.  Info:  542-4780. 

Cambridge  —  Battered  women’s  support 
group.  Women’s  Center,  46  Pleasant  St. 
6:30-8PM.  Info:  354-8807. 


2  tuesday 

Cambridge  —  “Nutrition  &  Food  Sup¬ 
plements,’’  a  D.O.B.  forum.  Old  Cambridge 
Baptist  Church,  1151  Mass.  Ave.  8PM.  In¬ 
fo:  661-3633. 

Boston  —  Volunteer  orientation  for  AIDS 
Action  Support  Services  Team.  AAC  office, 
661  Boylston  St.,  4th  fl.  7:30PM. 

3  Wednesday 

Cambridge  —  Politics  of  Fat.  Women's 
Center,  46  Pleasant  St.  7:30-9:30PM. 
Free.  Meets  every  Wednesday.  Info: 
354-8807  or  321-8636. 

Medford  —  “In  the  Fourth  Decade...” 

conceived  &  directed  by  Lisa  F.  Hillyer. 
Tufts  Arena  Theater.  8PM.  $1-4.  Info: 
381-3740. 

Boston  —  Gay  &  Lesbian  Artists  at  Mass. 
College  of  Art:  opening  reception.  Student 
Gallery,  621  Huntington  Ave.  5-8PM.  Info: 
232-5189. 


Safer  Sex  workshop,  6  Saturday 


4  thursday 

Cambridge  —  Central  American  women 

poets  reading.  Central  Sq.  Public  Library, 
45  Pearl  St.  7PM.  Info:  492-8699. 

Boston  —  Club  Cafe  Christmas  Auction. 
Volunteers  needed.  Info:  Steve  Huber, 
825-5711. 

Boston  —  Kenneth  Anger  on  Evening 
Magazine,  WBZ-TV,  Chan.  4.  7:30PM. 

Boston  —  GCN's  production  night.  All 

welcome.  Proofreading:  until  8PM.  Paste¬ 
up:  8PM-on.  167  Tremont  St.,  near  Park  & 
Boylston  T-stops.  GCN:  426-4469. 


5  friday 


Brookline  —  Am  Tikva  Shabbat  Service 

and  Oneg  Shabbat.  Workmen’s  Circle, 
1762  Beacon  St.  8PM.  Info:  782-8894. 

Cambridge  —  “Bowers  v.  Hardwick:  After 
the  Sodomy  Decision,”  a  talk  by  Sue  Hyde 
and  Janice  Irvine,  plus  slide  show  “an  in¬ 
telligent  intercourse,  a  tongue-in-cheek 
look  at  sodomy.”  MIT  Room  9-150,  105 
Mass.  Ave.  8PM.  Info:  734-3196. 

Boston  —  GCN’s  volunteer  night:  all 

welcome  to  help  mail  the  paper  to  our 
subscribers.  Refreshments,  good  times. 
Anytime  after  6PM.  167  Tremont  St.,  near 
Park  &  Boylston  T-stops.  GCN:  426-4469. 

Amherst  —  Coffeehouse  sponsored  by 
UMass  Program  for  Gay,  Lesbian  &  Bisex¬ 
ual  Concerns.  Blue  Wall,  Campus  Center. 
8PM.  Info:  (413)  545-4824. 

Boston  —  Urania,  a  lesbian/bi-sexual 
women’s  s/m  support  group.  Meets  first 
Friday  of  every  month.  Info:  P.O.  Box  23, 
Somerville,  MA,  02143,  or  395-4849. 

Boston  —  Buy  a  Brick  for  Casa  Myrna,  the 
battered  women's  shelter  which  burned 
down  last  year.  Info:  Casa  Myrna, 
262-0812. 

Boston  —  Girth  &  Mirth  pre-Christmas/ 
Hanukljah  social.  Hill  House,  74  Joy  St. 
8-10PM.  For  big/fat  men  and  their  ad¬ 
mirers.  Info:  566-6530  or  757-5432. 

Cambridge  —  Mother  Country,  a  play  by 
Susan  Eisenberg,  performed  to  benefit 
YWCA  programs  serving  low-income 
women  and  their  families.  YWCA,  7  TEm- 
ple  St.  8PM.  $6.  Info:  491-6050. 

Cambridge  —  ASL  storytelling  with  Bonnie 
Nover  and  Patti  Wilson.  First  Church,  11 
Garden  St.,  Harvard  Square.  8PM.  Benefit 
for  a  counselling  program  for  sexually 
abused  deaf  women. 


6  Saturday 

Boston  —  “Hot,  Horny  &  Healthy  — 
Eroticizing  Safer  Sex,”  a  workshop.  Arl¬ 
ington  St.  Church  basement.  1-4PM.  $5. 
Info:  437-6200. 

Boston  —  Audre  Lorde,  Kate  Rushin  & 
Rosario  Morales  to  read  as  a  benefit  for  Kit¬ 
chen  Table:  Women  of  Color  Press,  the 
Sisterhood  in  Support  of  Sisters  in  South 
Africa,  and  Sojourner.  Morse  Aud.,  602 
Commonwealth  Ave.  7:30PM.  $7.  Info: 
661-3567. 

7  Sunday 

Boston  —  “Women  for  Women,”  acoustic 
music  &  storytelling.  Tower  Aud.,  621 
Huntington  Ave.  7:30PM  $4.  Proceeds 
benefit  the  Women’s  Scholarship  Fund  at 
MassArt.  Info:  739-0794. 

Dorchester  —  GALA  Holiday  Potluck. 

7:30PM.  Bring  food  or  beverage.  Info: 
288-8029  or  825-4463. 

Boston  —  Ionian  Society,  a  group  for  gay  & 
lesbian  people  of  Greek  heritage,  holiday 
potluck.  4PM.  Info:  Stephanie,  894-8363 
or  Helena,  625-3172. 

8  monday 

Boston  —  GCN  membership  meeting  & 
potluck.  Help  critique  the  paper  and  plan 
its  future.  167  Tremont  St.  6PM.  All 
welcome.  Info:  426-4469. 

Boston  —  Committee  on  Gay  &  Lesbian 
Issues  of  the  National  Association  of  Social 
Workers  speakers  training.  7:30PM.  Info: 
227-9635  or  625-2609. 


9  tuesday 


Cambridge  —  “Should  I  Make  It  a  Gay 
Holiday  By  Coming  Out?”  a  discussion  for 
women.  D.O.B. ,  Old  Cambridge  Baptist 
Church,  1151  Mass  Ave.  8PM.  Info: 
661-3633. 


Cambridge  —  Healing  Service  for  all  af¬ 
fected  by  AIDS.  Old  Cambridge  Baptist 
Church,  1151  Mass.  Ave.,  Harvard  Sq. 
7:30PM. 


10  Wednesday 


Cambridge  —  Lesbians  35+  discuss  “Liv¬ 
ing  With  Yourself.”  D.O.B.,  Old  Cam¬ 
bridge  Baptist  Church,  1151  Mass  Ave. 
8PM.  Info:  661-3633. 

Cambridge  —  Lesbian  Al-Anon  with 
childcare.  Women’s  Center,  46  Pleasant 
St.  6:30-8PM.  Info:  354-8807. 

Boston  —  AIDS  Mastery  seminar  introduc¬ 
tion  to  3-day  workshop  for  people  with 
AIDS,  ARC,  and  their  friends.  Boston  Ac¬ 
tor’s  Institute,  731  Harrison  Ave.  7PM. 
Free.  Info:  Jeff  Blank,  267-5900. 


Central  American  poets,  4  thursday 

11  thursday 

Cambridge  —  Lesbians  choosing  children 

discussion.  Women’s  Center,  46  Pleasant 
St.  7:30PM.  Childcare  available.  Info: 
354-8807. 


12  friday 

Watertown  —  AIDS  Mastery  workshop. 

New  England  School  of  Acupuncture,  319 
Arlington  St.  $100-$250  donation  (no  one 
will  be  turned  away  for  lack  of  funds).  Info: 
Jeff  Blank,  267-5900. 

Cambridge  —  Eyes  of  the  Birds ,  film  drama 
on  Uraguay’s  poltical  prisoners.  YWCA,  7 
Temple  St.  7:30PM.  $3.  Info:  625-9279. 

Boston  —  Forum  on  the  broader  prospec- 
tives  of  human. rights,  sponsored  by  the 
Women’s  International  League  for  Peace  & 
Freedom.  Emmanuel  Church,  15  Newbury 
St.  7:30PM. 

Amherst  —  Dance  sponsored  by  the 
UMass  Lesbian,  Bisexual  &  Gay  Men’s 
Counselling  Collective.  Campus  Center, 
10th  Floor.  9PM-1AM.  $3.  Cash  bar.  All 
welcome. 

Boston  —  “archy  &  mehitabel,”  a  jazz 
musical  to  benefit  AIDS  research.  58 
Berkeley  St.,  The  Paramount  Playhouse. 
8PM.  Info:  492-7933. 


13  Saturday 


Boston  —  Sechaba  Singers,  officials 
cultural  representatives  of  the  African  Na¬ 
tional  Congress  of  South  Africa,  perform 
traditional  music  &  dance.  Emmanuel 
Church,  15  Newbury  St.  7:30PM.  $6. 
Wheelchair  accessible.  Benefit  for  ANC  & 
the  All  People's  Congress.  Info:  424-1176. 

Cambridge  —  Benefit  dance  for  the  San- 
chin  Karate  School.  595  Mass  Ave,  4th 
floor.  8:30PM.  Karate  demonstration  at 
9PM.  Info:  666-0916. 


14  Sunday 

Boston  —  Boston  Gay  Men’s  Chorus.  Jor¬ 
dan  Hall,  New  England  Conservatory,  cor¬ 
ner  of  Huntington  Ave.  &  Gainsborough  St. 
3PM.  Sign  language  interpreted. 


Calendar  compiled  by  Miranda  Kolbe 


GayCommunity  News 


Win/Lose/Draw,  three  one-act  plays 
by  Ara  Watson  and  Mary  Gallagher  at  the 
Alley  Theatre,  Cambridge,  Thurs.-Sun.,  8 
p.m.,  through  Dec.  13. 

The  umbrella  title  for  these  three 
plays  could  be  reversed  to  described 
how  well  each  one  helped  to  mitigate 
my  long-standing  suspicion  that  one- 
acts  are  usually  so  short  because  the 
playwright  ran  out  of  material.  I'd  rank 
them  lose,  draw,  win. 

Little  Miss  Fresno,  by  Ara  Watson 
and  Mary  Gallagher,  contrasts  two 
stage  moms  who  meet  at  a  child  beauty 
contest.  Sexy,  pushy,  working-class 
Ginger  (Doreen  DiSanza)  relies  on  her 
daughter’s  career  as  a  source  of  excite¬ 
ment  and  as  balm  for  her  own  insecuri¬ 
ties;  her  genteel  suburban  counterpart 
(Beth  Goldman)  is  just  beginning  to  get 
caught  up  in  the  addiction  of  competi¬ 
tion.  The  acting  is  fine,  if  a  bit  broad  for 
such  a  small  theatre,  but  the  script  is  so 
shallow  that  most  of  the  audience’s  at¬ 
tention  was  riveted  to  DiSanza/Ginger’s 
wig,  a  mountainous  edifice  of  blond 
curls  that  makes  Dolly  Parton  look  prim 
by  comparison. 

Watson’s  Final  Placement  ventures 
into  deeper  waters,  pitting  a  yuppie 
social  worker  against  the  hillbilly 
woman  whose  son  she  has  removed 
due  to  severe  parental  abuse.  “I’m  your 
friend,”  Mary  tells  Luellen,  “in  the 
sense  of  helping  you  —  as  a  profes¬ 
sional  friend.”  Mary’s  smug  moral 
superiority  is  shaken  by  Luellen’s  des¬ 
perate,  real  love  for  the  son  she  has  per¬ 
manently  lost,  but  Final  Placement, 
finally,  is  inconclusive.  The  repeated 
fadeouts  to  black,  during  which  Mary’s 
dictation  to  her  secretary  about  the 
case  are  played,  interrupt  too  often  and 
too  clumsily,  sabotaging  the  momen¬ 
tum  of  this  intense  piece. 

In  Gallagher’s  Chocolate  Cake, 
DiSanza  and  Goldman  are  at  their  peak 
as  kitsch  meets  camp.  Brassy  ex¬ 
hooker  Delia  (Goldman)  shares  one 
trait  with  small-town  innocent  Ann 
Marie  (DiSanza):  an  obsession  with 
food  and  weight.  These  are  women  for 
whom  “the  pulsing  pink  Dunkin’ 
Donuts  sign  is  like  the  Christ  over  Rio.” 
This  hilarious  and  incisive  examination 
of  the  needs  that  food  fills  beyond  the 
physical  is  the  most  solid  of  the  three 
plays,  because  we  see  real  emotional 
growth  occur  for  Ann  Marie.  Goldman 
and  DiSanza  are  superb,  and  the  one- 
liners  zing  past  thick  and  fast.  “A  man 
is  good  for  a  month,”  Delia  advises  Ann 
Marie,  “a  good  man  —  a  year.  But  hot 
fudge  is  forever!” 

—  Mara  Math 

L.A.  Law,  a  TV  series.  NBC.  Nov  21. 

Kudos  to  L.A.  Law.  In  its  November 
21  episode,  the  series  about  a  posh  Los 
Angeles  law  firm  tackles  AIDS  and  in¬ 
troduces  two  strong  gay  characters. 

One  of  the  several  sub-plots  in  this 
episode  deals  with  a  man  who  has 
killed  his  lover  who  was  dying  of  AIDS. 
The  murder  is  committed  at  the  dying 
man’s  request  and  only  after  the  suffer¬ 
ing  had  become  unbearable. 

The  defense  attorney  is  a  gay  lawyer 
who  comes  out  to  the  courtroom  and 
the  audience  at  home  in  a  strong  and 
well-played  scene: 

Lawyer:  (To  prospective  juror)  Do  you 
have  a  prejudice  against  homosexuals? 

Juror:  No,  I  don’t  think  so. 

Lawyer:  Are  you  a  homosexual? 

Juror:  (Angrily)  No,  are  you? 

Lawyer:  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  am. 

Juror:  Well,  for  your  information,  I’m 
a  married  man. 

Lawyer:  Well,  with  all  due  respect,  so 
are  a  lot  of  homosexuals. 

The  attorney  is  portrayed  as  strong 
and  highly  competent.  The  gay  man  ac¬ 
cused  of  euthanasia  is  an  admirable 
character  who  acted  out  of  a  deep  love 
and  commitment  to  his  life  partner.  The 
medical  testimony  is  clear,  accurate 
and  up-to-date  enough  to  mention  AZT. 

The  lover’s  conviction  on  a  charge  of 
first  degree  murder  insures  the  story 
will  be  continued  on  appeal  in  future 
episodes  of  L.A.  Law. 

—  Art  Cohen 


Page  14  •  Gay  Community  News,  November  23-29,  1986- 


GCN  SEEKS  NEW  HOME 

It  appears  that  our  building  has 
been  sold  and  the  new  owners 
want  to  tear  it  down  as  soon  as 
possiblE.  Please  consider  all 
the  ways  you  could  help:  Help 
us  search  for  possible  spaces 
available  immediately.  Spaces 
should  have  2000  sq.  ft.  or  so  of 
floor  space,  be  reasonably  near 
public  transportation  and  not 
cost  more  than  $1000  per 
month.  Consider  a  donation  of 
time  and/or  money  for  the  in¬ 
evitable  moving  costs.  Be 
prepared  to  come  by  a  few  times 
to  lend  a  hand  packing  boxes. 
Call  us-we  have  many  sugges¬ 
tions  as  to  how  you  could  help. 
GCN  is  run  by  its  membership. 
We  look  to  you  for  help. 

Please  contact  the  GCN  MOVE 
folks  at  426-4469. _ (C) 


DEAR  ADVERTISER 

If  race  is  not  a  crucial  issue  for 
you,  why  put  it  in  your  ad?  It  is  not 
a  required  formula;  GWM,  GWF 
are  not  necessary.  GM  or  GF  or  LF 
would  do  as  well. _ (C) 

PERSONALS _ 

SEX 

Women  wanted  for  good  times  and 
good  sex.  Your  choice  between  a  quiet 
librarian  or  an  outgoing  jock.  Absolute¬ 
ly  no  commitment.  Respond  by  letter 
with  your  likes  and  dislikes.  Chemfreb 
nonsmkrs  please.  Box  158. _ (21) 

GWF  late  30s.  Seek  prof.  35+  F  com¬ 
fortable  both  in  &  out  of  mainstream.  I 
like  depth,  versatility,  expressiveness 
and  play.  Enjoy  theater,  all  music,  dan¬ 
cing,  socializing,  reflecting.  .1  offer 
warmth,  enthusiasm,  humor,  in- 
telligence.  Box  159. _ (21) 

ANDI  IN  CAMBRIDGE 
I’m  glad  I  saw  you  at  Angry  Arts.  I've 
thought  of  you  often  since  the  flight 
back  from  Newark.  Please  get  in  touch. 
Barbara  Box  160. _ (21) 

GOING  MY  WAY? 

GM  seeks  M  or  F  travel  companion  for 
Jan. -Feb.  trip  through  Mexico,  C 
America,  to  Nica,  maybe  to  join  a 
brigade..  Interested?  Write  Mark 
O’Malley,  Brown  Box  4410,  Prov.,  Rl 
02912,  or  call  401-521-1957. _ (22) 

MY  LADY  M  IS  LEAVING 
My  love  shall  warm  &  caress  you.  Mere 
miles  can't  interfere.  Your  love  for  me 
lighted  the  darkness.  I  couldn't  feel 
such  pain  now  had  I  not  felt  such  joy. 
The  Fleur  de  Lis  earring  &  Vicoin  are 
you  now.  I  love  the  me  I’ve  become  in 
loving  and  being  loved  by  you.  I  await 
your  return.  Eons  are  moments 
because  I  know  where  you  keep  the 
lock  &  key  &  your  half  of  the  coin. 

Jewel 

_ (20) 

WANT  TO  RUN  PARALLEL? 

22yr.  old  LF  musician  w/cat  looking  for 
sensitive,  self-sufficient,  interesting 
and  humourous  LF  who  likes  traveling, 
camping,  dinners  out,  quiet  nights,  old 
films.  Must  have  a  kind  and  thoughtful 
nature.  Let's  begin  with  friendship  and 
see  what  happens.  Send  letter  and 
photo ...  or  just  letter , , .  Box  1 56  (22) 

LESBIAN  AND  Bl  FEMALES 
Meet  attractive,  interesting  women  in 
your  area  through  CLUB  RENDEZ¬ 
VOUS,  a  personalized  dating  service  for 
women.  Nation-wide  service.  Low  fee. 
Call  or  write  for  brochure:  Club  Rendez¬ 
vous,  256  S.  Robertson  #205,  Beverly 
Hills,  CA  9021 1.(213)  512-7834.  (20) 

Relax  for  a  quiet  evening  with  soft 
music  in  the  background  while  I  give 
you  a  hot  soothing  massage,  relaxing 
every  muscle  in  your  body  when  finish¬ 
ed,  then  use... GWM  5’7”  120  in 
Waltham  seeks  those  interested  in  the 
above  plus  extras.  Box  157 _ (20) 

MR.  LEFT 

GM  40  goodlooking  left  (socialist)  ac¬ 
tivist,  non-drinker,  into  good  friends, 
good  times,  good  safe  sex.  Seeks 
similar,  35-?  For  fun  &  intimacy.  Wants 
friend  &  lover.  Smkr,  but  will  quit.  R  U 
like  me,  looking  for  Mr.  Left,  commited 
to  love  and  struggle?  Providence- 
Boston  area.  Write  Box  153. _ (22) 

HOT  DATES 

Be  the  1st  to  see  GCN’s  weekly  calen¬ 
dar  of  events:  volunteer  to  compile  the 
listings.  In  December,  GCN's  calendar 
compiler,  Miranda  Kolbe  is  going  on 
vacation.  To  take  her  place  you  must  be 
able  to  come  to  GCN  every  Monday  for 
4  weks.  Typing  skills  necessary.  Call 
Loie  at  426-4469. _ (C) 

ED  Le  VENTURE,  MARION,  FLA 
Got  your  letter.  Wrote  3  times.  I  want 
you  to  be  my  housemate  and  friend. 
Send  plan  to  meet  on  your  release  date 
and  I  will  be  there-guaranteed.  Keep 
writing.  How  can  I  help  you?  Tom,  Box 
3072,  Saxonville  Station,  Framingham, 
MA  01701. _  (20) 

PICK  UP  YOUR  MAIL,  PLEASE 
Box  numbers  74,  78,  79,  94,  -  the  world 
awaits  your  reply! _ (C) 


WOMEN,  DON’T  DANCE  IN  SA? 

L,  30  visiting  Colombia,  most  time  in 
Bogota  wants  to  know  about  places 
where  women  get  together  —  can't  find 
it  in  the  guides.  Reply  ASAP.  Box  155 
(19) . 

CIRCULATION  SIDEKICK 

GCN’s  busy  Circulation  Manager  needs 
some  help.  The  world  of  circulation  can 
be  yours!  You'll  do  loads  of  boring 
repetetive  office  work.  Think  of  it  as  a 
form  of  meditation.  A  couple  of  hours  a 
week  will  do,  anytime  during  the  day, 
any  day  of  the  week.  Some  office  skills 
required.  For  more  information,  call 
Marcos  at  426-4469. _ (C) 

INDEXER  NEEDED 

Our  "title  index’’  (list  of  story  titles)  is 
falling  behind.  If  you’d  like  to  come  by 
and  help  update  it,  call  Mike  at  GCN, 
426-4469.  It’s  fun!  (looking  at  back 
issues). _ (20) 


ANNOUNCEMENTS 

DIRECTOR  WANTED! 

New  play  in  town,  The  Lunch,  seeks  F 
Director.  Sensitivity  &  exp.  with  Jewish 
culture,  transformational  theat.,  &  les¬ 
bian  issues.  Wild  &  focused  spirit  a 
must.  Call  Michelle  for  int.  522-7377.(22) 


JEWISH  LESBIAN  DAUGHTERS 

OF  HOLOCAUST  SURVIVORS 

We  exist  in  many  numbers.  We  meet 
for  support  &  networking.  We  welcome 
contact  from  other  Jewish  Lesbian 
Daughters  of  Holocaust  Survivors  and 
would  like  to  be  able  to  connect.  Now,  a 
partners  group  has  also  been  formed 
for  women  who  are  in  relationship  with 
JLDHS.  Membership  is  not  dependent 
on  both  partners.  For  information,  write 
Box  6194,  Boston,  MA  02114  or  call 
(617)  321-4254. _ (25) 

ON  LINE  AND  ACCESSIBLE! 

GAY  COMMUNITY  NEWS  has  our 
TTY/TDD  installed  and  ready  for  use! 
We  are  now  accessible  to  the  deaf  and 
hearing  impaired  community.  Our 
TTY/TDD  number  is  (617)  426-0332. 
Typical  GCN  hours  are  10-6  pm,  M-F. 
Spread  the  word! _ (C) 

FLYING  FINGERS  AKA  DATA  ENTRY 
If  you  have  some  time  to  do  data  entry 
for  GCN,  particularily  during  the  day, 
we  have  a  simple  project  that  needs  the 
“special  attention”  only  data  entry  peo¬ 
ple  can  give.  Call  Catherine  at 
426-4469. _ (C) 


GET  PUBLISHED! 

GCN’s  news  dept  is  looking  for  a 
volunteer  to  write  news  notes.  News 
writig  experience  not  necessary.  5 
hr/week  (flexible).  Call  Stephanie  or 
Marcos  at  426-4469  for  more  info.  (C) 

§  WOMEN’S  CRAFT  MARKET 

First  3  weekends  in  Dec.  Sat 
g  11-5,  Sun  12-5  at  186  Hampshire 
*  St.,  Camb.  Grand  opening  Dec. 

$  6,  Doorprizes!  Also  seeking  new 

&  craftswomen  to  join  us  -  Call 
v  321-0950  for  information.  (24) 


PUBLICATIONS 


New  publication:  Kink  Konfidential. 
Safe  but  hot:  shaving,  SM,  bondage,  TT, 
enemas,  fetishes  etc.  Free  ad:  TR 
Witomski,  41  Bonaire,  Toms  River,  Nj 
08757. _ (20) 

BLACK/OUT 

The  new  quarterly  magazine  from  the 
National  coalition  of  Black  Lesbians 
and  Gays,  features  news,  views, 
reviews,  poetry,  short  fiction  and  an¬ 
nouncements  of  interest  to  the  national 
Black  Lesbian  and  Gay  community. 
Sample  copy,  $4,  1  yr.  subscription,  (4 
issues)  $10.  To:  Black/Out:,  NCBLG,  930 
F  Street,  NW  no  514,  Wash.,  DC  20004. 
Black/Out:  Because  silence  is  costly.() 
LESBIAN  CONTRADICTION 
A  Journal  of  Irreverent  Feminism. 
Quarterly  of  commentary,  analysis, 
reviews,  cartoons  &  humor  by  and  for 
women  who  agree  to  disagree-who  are 
still  political,  but  not  necessarily  cor¬ 
rect.  Sample  $1;  sub  $5;  more  if/less  if. 
LesCon,  584  Castro,  no.  263G,  SF,  CA 
94114. _ (V15.18) 

GUARDIAN:  Independent  radical 
newsweekly.  Covers  Gay,  women  and 
minority  struggles  and  international 
progressive  movements.  Special  offer-4 
issues  FREE.  Write  Guardian,  Dept 
GCN,  33W  17th  St.  NY,  NY,  10011.  (ex) 
off  our  backs 

Celebrating  15  years  of  radical  feminist 
journalism.  We  bring  feminist  national/ 
international  news  analysis  and 
reviews  each  month.  $11  year,  11 
issues.  ($15  for  contributing  subs)  $20 
institutional  fee.  Sample-$3  for  3 
issues!  Write  'off  out  backs'  Dept  GCN, 
1841  Columbia  Rd.  NW,  Room  212 
Washington,  DC  20009. _ (ex) 

OUTRAGEOUS  WOMEN 
National  journal  of  woman-to-woman 
S/M.  Diverse  feminist  quarterly  of  S/M 
fact,  fiction  and  photos.  $1 1/yr.  Single 
issues  $3.  Must  state  you  are  over  18. 
SASE  for  info.  PO  Box  23,  Somerville 
MA  02143. _ (ex) 

WOMAN  OF  POWER:  A  Magazine  of 
Feminism,  Spirituality,  and  Politics,” 
an  inspiring  international  quarterly 
publication.  Subscriptions  $22  for  4 
issues;  singles  issues  $6  plus  $1 
postage.  P.O.  Box  827,  Cambridge,  MA 
02238,  telephone  (61 7)  625-7885.  (ex) 


ON  OUR  BACKS,  the  sexual  entertain¬ 
ment  magazine  for  lesbians,  is  48 
pages  of  erotic  fiction,  features,  plus 
timely  sexual  advice  and  news  colums. 
We  are  quarterly,  national,  unique  and 
provacative.  $  1 5/yr  sub  or  $5  current 
issue  to:  On  Our  Backs,  PO  Box  421916, 
San  Francisco,  CA  94142.  (ex) 

HELP  WANTED _ 

are  looking  for  an  experienced  lead 
guitar/keyboards/vocalist.  Must  have 
own  equipment,  exp.  w/touring  &  music 
arranging;  easy  w/character-acting.  On¬ 
ly  professionals  apply.  Send  resume, 
audition  tape  &  pic.:  20  Cumberland 
San  Francisco,  CA  94110.  Final 
deadline:  1/15/87.(415)821-3534,  (25) 

Fundraiser  with  American  Friends  Ser¬ 
vice  Committee,  international  organiza¬ 
tion  for  nonviolent  social  change. 
Chicago-based,  to  interpret  Quaker 
values  and  programs  to  donors  in  Ml- 
OH-KY  area,  promote  deferred  giving, 
seek  foundation  grants.  Ability  to 
travel;  strong  inter-personal  com¬ 
munication,  administrative  skills  a 
must.  Applicants  considered  without 
regard  to  race,  sex,  religion,  sexual 
orientation,  or  disability.  Resumes  to: 
Paula  Amann,  AFSC,  59  E.  Van  Buren, 
Suite  1400,  Chicago,  IL,  60605  by  Dec. 
22. _ (20) 

Non-profit  organization  seeks  Assis¬ 
tant  Coordinator  for  multi-racial 
women’s  cultural  festival  in  June. 
$8,000/8months,  full-time,  start  ASAP. 
Arts  administration  and  coalition  ex¬ 
perience  required.  Women  and 
minorities  encouraged.  Call  Roadwork, 
234-9308. _ (C) 

Non-profit  organization  seeks  Promo¬ 
tion  Coordinator  for  multi-racial 
women’s  cultural  festival.  $4,000/8 
months,  part-time,  start  ASAP. 
Media/pr  and  coalition  experience  re- 
quired.  Call  Roadwork,  234-9308.  (C) 

DISABLED  LESBIAN  NEEDS 
ATTENDANT 

Personal  care  for  disabled  Lesbian  art 
therapist.  $140  clear  for  48  hr  shift/$210 
clear  for  72  hr  shift. 

I  am  paralysed  from  the  neck  down.  I 
need  attendants.  I  prefer  to  hire  Les¬ 
bians.  Most  women  who  work  for  me 
stay  an  average  of  1-2  years.  This 
means  I  need  to  fill  at  least  2  or  3  posi¬ 
tions  a  year.  I  need  women  now  and  will 
need  more  women  over  the  next  year.  I 
need  women  who  will  be  my  body  and 
help  me  do  my  art,  accompany  me  on 
speaking  engagements,  write  for  me, 
help  me  draw  with  my  mouth,  feed  me, 
dress  and  toilet  me,  all  under  my  direc¬ 
tion. 

If  you  have  a  drivers  license,  are  able  to 
lift  110  lbs,  are  a  light  sleeper,  non 
smoker,  reponsible  and  able  to  follow 
directions,  and  are  interested  in  learn¬ 
ing  new  skills,  please  call  Connie  Pan- 
zarino  at  524-0921. _ (30) 


Th«  Fabulout 


SO/  ROCH  £  ROIC  BflnD 


are  looking  for  an  experienced  lead 
guitar/keyboards/vocalist.  Must  have 
own  equipment,  exp.  w/touring  &  music 
arranging;  easy  w/character-acting.  On¬ 
ly  professionals  apply.  Send  resume, 
audition  tape  &  pic.:  20  Cumberland, 
San  Francisco,  CA  94110.  Final 
deadline:  1/15/87.(415)821-3534,  (25) 

COOK  EVENINGS 

Work  in  a  small  congenial  Cambridge 
cafe.  Modern  Times  Cafe  354-8391. 
Also  dishwasher,  vegetable  prep  davs 
mi _ 

GCN  JOB  OPENING 

GCN  is  seeking  a  CIRCULATION 
MANAGER/STAFF  WRITER.  Begin 
1/3/87.  Research  and  write  news  stories 
of  int  to  nat’l  readership.  Coordinate 
wkly  mailing  of  paper  by  volunteers, 
process  subs  and  renewals.  Requires 
writing  skills  +  abil  to  work 
w/deadlines,  interpersonal,  org  recor¬ 
dkeeping  skills.  Knowledge  of  data  en¬ 
try  and/or  computers  helpful. 

Position  requires  familiarity  w/gay  and 
lesbian  community;  commitment  to 
gay  and  lesbian  liberation,  feminism, 
anti-racism,  and  collective  decision 
making;  awareness  of  class  issues. 

Sal  $180/wk  +  4  wks  pd  vac.  complete 
helath/life  ins.  Resumes  to  GCN 
Circ/Writer  Search,  167  Tremont  Street, 
Boston,  MA  02111.  Lesbians  and  gay 
men  of  color  particularly  encouraged  to 
apply- _ (C) 

MOVERS _ 

POOR  PEOPLES  MOVERS 

Licensed  and  Insured 
MDPU  24184 
522-0826 

_ (15.20) 

THE  JIM  CLARK  MOVING  COMPANY 

Serving  the  Gay  Community 
with  professionalism  and  respect 
Very  careful  furniture  movers. 
Piano  and  hoisting  specialists. 

Any  time  of  the  day-any  day  of  the  year. 
No  overtime  charges,  354-2184 
MPDU  Number  23733 
_ (1) 

APPLETON  MOVING  CO.,  INC. 
(formerly,  Boston  Trucking  Co.) 
Liscenced  and  Insured  MA  DPU#25522 
No  job  too  big  or  too  small 
Very  careful  movers  641-1234 


II) 


CLASSIFIED  AD  FORM 


NAME  _ _ 

STREET _ _ 

CITY _ STATE 

PHONE  ( _ )_ _ 

Use  1  unit  for  each  letter,  punctuation  mark  or  space  between  words. 
Print  clearly.  Ads  will  be  returned  if  we  can’t  read  them. 


JULIAN  WRIGHT  MOVING  COMPANY 

Exp,  Rel,  Lie,  &  Ins 
MPDUK24430 
Tel  661-2958 

_ _  (15.3) 

ALL  AMERICAN  MOVERS 

Careful,  Quick  &  Kind 
Store,  Pack,  Move-Home  &  Office 
Mention  this  ad  for  a  discount 
Russ  321-7037  or  322-7373  Pat 

_ (VI  4.26) 

THE  MARAKESH  EXPRESS 

“16  years  of  quality  service** 
Licensed  &  Insured  MDPU  21412 
Visa  and  Mastercharge  accepted 

New  and  inexpensive  used  cartons 

“Call  661-0550  Anytime** 

(V14.32) 


TRAVEL _ 

FOREX  TRAVEL 

Phone  482-2900 
76  Arlington  Street 
at  Boston’s  Park  Plaza 
_ (E) 

SPANISH  PROGRAM  FOR  WOMEN 
Study  Spanish  in  Cuernavaca,  Mexico. 
Live  with  Mexican  family.  Learn 
politics,  history  and  culture  of  women 
in  Mexico  through  experience  and  inter¬ 
change.  February.  Write  Neighbors/ 
Sisters,  Box  92,  Hallowell,  ME  04337.  (1) 

SWEET  CAROLINE 

A  new  women’s  guest  house  right 
around  the  corner  from  Duval  Street  in 
Historic  Key  West.  Patricia  Major,  MD, 
owner.  529  Caroline  Street,  Key  West, 
FL,  33040,  or  call  (305)  296-5173  (28) 


apartments  &  guest  rooms 
for  women  &  their  friends 


Open  Year  Round 
Cable  TV  &  Coffee 
Hot  Tub  &  Sun  Deck 
In  the  Center  of  Town 


(617)  487-3232 
104  Bradford  Street 
Provincetown,  MA  02657 


OFF  SEASON  DISCOUNT  COUPON 
Reserve  two  nights  between  October  20th  and 
April  15th  and  get  the  third  night  free  with 


•DEADLINE:  Tuesday,  noon. 
All  ads  are  prepaid. 

No  phone  ads  accepted. 


APT. 

ZIP. 


Category: 


Head 

Lines 

Head 

Lines 

. 

i 

Bold  Headlines: 

Business 

X 

2.00 

Non-Business 

X 

1.00 

1st  4  Lines 
or  part  thereof: 

Business 

7.00 

Non-Business 

5.00 

Additional  Lines 

Business 

.  X 

.75 

1 

or  part  thereof: 

Non-Business 

i 

X 

.50 

TOTAL 

PAYMENT  MUST  ACCOMPANY 
ALL  CLASSIFIEDS. 

Return  this  form  and  payment  to 
GCN  Classifieds,  167  Tremont  St., 
5th  Floor,  Boston,  MA  02111. 


Display  (Boxed)  Classifieds:  Col.  inches 
or  part  thereof: _ x  12.00  =  _ 


TOTAL  for  1  Week  (Add)  = 

* 

Number  of  Weeks  (Multiply)  = 
SUBTOTAL 


DISCOUNTS:  for  10-20 
consecutive  weeks 


10%  = 
15%  = 
20%  = 


for  21-30  consec.  wks. 
for  31  +  consec.  wks. 

TOTAL  FOR  AD  COPY 
LZ  Pick-up  Box:  for  6  wks  2.00  = 
LZ  Forwarding  Bx:  6wks.  5.00  = 

H  Tearshts:  #wks _ xl.00  = 

TOTAL  = 


I 


Gay  Community  News,  November  23-29,  1986  •  Page  15 


IK 


TRY  GCN’s 
GUARANTEED 
ROOMMATE”  AD 

GCN’s  “Guaranteed  Roommate”  offer 
All  Roommate  and  Housemate  Ads 
that  are  Prepaid  for  Two  Weeks 
We  will  run  until  you  find  a  roommate. 

Ads  will  not  be  automatically  renewed.  You 
must  call  in  every  additional  week  you  want 
the  ad  to  run.  Phone  calls  will  be  accepted 
|  all  day  Mondays  and  Tuesdays  till  noon, 

ROOMMATE  WANTED  HOUSING  WANTED 

Room  available  for  approx  6  months 
from  Decemeber.  Un-  or  part  furnish. 

Share  K&B  w/2F. Short  walk  to  Red  Line 
(Ashmont).  No  Pets.  $300  incls.  heat  +  . 

Carol  288-3137  evenings. _ (20) 

Roommate  wanted.  Over  25  compa¬ 
nionable  gay  male  to  share  clean, 
modern  home  in  quiet  neighborhood 
with  GWM  48.  No  smoke,  drugs.  Pet 
OK.  Minimal  rent.  POB  262  Franklin, 

MA  02038. _ (21) 

Woman  to  share  spacious,  quiet,  sun- 
filled  2-bedroom  apt.  By  park.  Pro¬ 
vidence  East  side.  $250.  Stella 
401-781-9026. _ (21) 

Female  roommate  Providence  area. 

House  nr.  bay.  Furnished  bedroom. 

Shared  kitchen.  Parking.  Nr.  bus  line. 

$50/wk,  incl.  utilities.  Jo  Ann 
401-781-9026.  After  8PM. _ (21) 

Share  our  home  in  Somerville!  2  apts:  2 
BR,  LR  DR,  Mod.  KT  +  BR  —  $725.  4BR, 

LR,  DR,  Mod.  KT  +  BR  —  $995.  Sep. 
util.  F  +  B  Porch.  Nice  yard.  Bsmt. 

Near  T.  LF  owned.  628-1006.  Leave 
mssg.  Avail.  Jan  .  1st, _ (21) 

MEDFORD  NEAR  TUFTS 
2LFs  sk  3rd  woman  25  +  ,  veg.,  no  smk., 
shr.  food  &  some  meals.  Have  cat,  no 
dogs.  On  qt  st.,  prkg.,  W/D,  yard.  200  + 
heat  .  395-9021. _ (20) 

LOVELY  ARLINGTON  APT. 

LF  seeks  LF  or  BiF  to  share  pretty,  cozy 
home.  Sunny,  trees!  Near  T,  fresh 
croissants  round  comer,  Spy  Pond  5 
min.  away.  $275  incl  heat.  Fredi, 

646-7968. _ (20) 

ROOMMATE  WANTED 
$205  + ,  50  feet  to  laundry,  grocery,  w/  3 
grad  students  (2  F,  1  M).  Bwtn  Central  & 

Harvard  Sqs.  Nice  folks.  Dec  1  thru 
Sept  1.  Call  868-0011. _ (19) 

JAMAICA  PLAIN 

2  LF  seek  a  third  to  share  sunny  3BR 
apt  in  JP  3  blks  fm  T.  Porch,  yard,  dog. 

Veg.  $240,  524-3229.  (20) 

(Don’t  be  discouraged  if  you  tried  to 
answer  this  ad  last  week  and  couldn’t 
get  through;  the  phone  number  was 
printed  incorrectly.  This  is  the  correct 
number,  so  try  again.) 


2  LF  sk  3rd  for  newly  est.  big  sunny 
newly  renvtd.  JP  apt.  Yard  &  porch.  Nr 
T.  Want  to  create  warm,  feminist  home. 
No  smk  pis.  For  ASAP.  $250  +  . 
524-7959.  Day,  Leslie,  273-1700  x  4359. 
(29) 

BE  AT  HOME  ON  DEC.  1! 

JLF  sks  1  resp  friendly  feminist  for 
relax,  homey  2BR  Dav.  Sq.  apt.  $285  +  . 
No  pets,  smk,  drg,  min  ale.  12  steppers 
esp  O.A.  welcome.  Susan  623-3376.  (20) 

ARLINGTON 

Feminist  and/or  lesbian  woman  wanted 
for  lovely  duplex  with  IF,  1M.  Deck, 
fireplace,  close  to  pond  and  MBTA  — 
646-7968. _ (21) 

SEEKING  GROOVY  (F) 
HOUSEMATE 

For  December  1st,  w/ideal  traits  such 
as:  non-smoking,  easy  going,  con¬ 
siderate,  not  separatist,  feminist,  ear¬ 
thy,  spacy,  cultural/political  con- 
clousness,  sense  of  humor,  quiet  or 
wild,  not  homophobic/heterophobic, 
open,  warm,  for  semi-coop,  Allston. 
Call  787-4764. _ (21) 

NASHUA  NH,  IDEAL  LOCATION 
Prof.  GWM  39,  has  master  bedrm  with 
walk-in  closet  for  rent.  You  pay  Vi 
$590/mo  rent  +  Vi  util.  Ready  now.  Call 
Paul,  882-7746, 6-1 1PM. _ (20) 

NEW! 

LESBIAN  &  GAY  NORTH  OF  BOSTON 
ROOMMATE  EXCHANGE 

Looking  for  a  roomate  or  tenant  on  the 
North  Shore?  Let  us  help  you  make  the 
right  choice!  Confidential/reasonable 
fees/convenient  Salem  location. Call  to- 
day!  1-617-741-2557. _ (19,21) 

NEW! 

LESBIAN  &  GAY  NORTH  OF  BOSTON 
ROOMMATE  EXCHANGE 

Looking  for  a  roomate  or  tenant  on  the 
North  Shore?  Let  us  help  you  make  the 
right  choice!  Confidential/reasonable 
fees/convenient  Salem  location. Call  to- 
day!  1-617-741-2557. _ (19,21) 


ACHOO! 

Ind  frndly  allergic  F  sks  elec  htd,  hdwd 
firs,  no  smoke/pets  in  2-3  br  mod  apt  or 
estab  liv  sit  approx  $300  —  or  F  to  look 
with  —  Kim  623-8747 _ (20) 

ORGANIZATIONS 

D.O.B 

Support  organization  for  leabians,  1151 
Mass  Ave,  Camb.  OCBC.  Raps  every 
Tues,  Thurs  at  8:pm.  Special  raps  for 
35 +  ,  parents,  ynger  women,  baby 
boomers,  singles,  coming  out,  issues 
forum.  All  8pm.  Monthly  events,  outing 
club,  library.  Info:  661-3633.  All  women 

invited  to  paticipate. _ (VI 4. 35) 

BLACK  AND  WHITE  MEN  TOGETHER 
Multiracial  group  for  all  people  .  Call 
(415)  431-1976  or  write  BWMT,  suite 
140,  580  Castro  St.  SF,  CA,  94114. 
_ (V14.15) 

LESBIANS 

Are  you  lesbian,  Bisexual  or  unsure? 
Looking  for  a  group  to  go  to? 

Come  join  us  at  BAGLY. 

Call  Tony,  497-8282 
_ (VI  4.32) 

PROJECT  TRUTH/FREE  WILL 
Info  packet  on  police  abuse  of  gay 
teens,  and  ways  it  can  be  stopped.  1  yr 
membership  $20.  Info  $2  (for  postage  & 
printing)  to:  Project  TRUTH/Free  Will, 
PO  Box  244,  Paramus,  NJ  07653-0244. 
_ (!«) 

GAY,  LESBIAN  AND  JEWISH? 

Am  Tikva  welcomes  you.  Activities  in¬ 
clude  religious  observances,  potluck 
dinners,  discussions,  folk  dancing,  etc. 
For  events,  check  GCN  calendar.  Call 
(617)  782-8894  or  write  PO  Box  11,  Cam- 
bridqe,  MA  02238. _ (V14.35) 

MAN/BOY  LOVE 

A  support  group  for  intergenerational 
relationships.  For  more  information 
send  $1  to:  NAMBLA-GCNAD  at  537 
Jones  ST.  NO  8418,  S.F.  CA  94102  or  PO 
Box  174,  New  York,  New  York  10018. 
_ (VI  4.23) 

CONCORD  MEN’S  GROUP 
A  support  group  in  Central  N.H.  for  Gay 
and  Bi-sexual  men  on  Fri.  at  7:30  pm. 
For  more  info,  call  Gay  Info-line  of  N.H. 
at  (603)  753-9533. _ (V14.18) 

SERVICES _ 

MAILING  LIST  HEADACHES? 

Computerize  it!  Fast,  accurate,  con¬ 
fidential  service.  Alpha,  zip  odering, 
labels,  Delivery,  more!  Reasonable 
prices.  Box  1092,  Cambridge,  MA 
02238. _ (19! 

HOUSE  TENDING 
Cleaning  with  a  personal  touch  im- 1 
agine!  Starched  shirts,  healthy  plants, 
fresh  flowers  etc,  etc,  etc.  Please  leave 
message.  Jade  623-3953. _ (21)  | 


RESUMES  THAT  WORK 

$35 

includes  consultation 
and  completed  resume. 

787-4252 


PERSONAL  HEALTH 

•General  Medical  Care 
•Sports  Medicine 

•  Diagnosis  &  Treatment  of  Disease 
Private  Medical  Ollice 
Confidential 

ROBERT  TAYLOR,  MD 
1755  Beacon  Street,  Brookline  232- 1459 


m 

H 

support 

Gay  Community 
News 


APARTMENTS 


Dorchester:  2nd  fir  6  rm  2  bdrm  full 
rnvtn:  New  kitch/bath/flrs.  Safe  ownr 
occ  bldng.$575/mo  no  util.  Russo, 
282-1196,  eves  after  7. _ (19) 

GOVERNMENT  HOMES  from  $1.  (U 
repair).  Delinquent  tax  property. 
Repossessions.  Call  1-805-687-6000 
Ext.  H-1437  for  current  repo  list.  (25) 


DICTIONARIES!! 

The  Books  for  Prisoners  Project 
has  been  sitting  pretty  with  a  BOX 
of  dictionaries  from  Lesbian 
Herstory  Archives  but  now  they  ’re 
all  given  out  and  we  need  MORE! 
If  you  or  your  group  would  like  to 
donate  an  old  dictionary  or  2,  or 
some  monev  to  buy  used  or  cheap 
ones,  PLEASE  DO!!!  (Thanks!) 


f  ll 


Whatever  your  feelings  about 
the  various  soltice  holidays, 
I  it’s  a  VERY  LONELY  time  for 
people  in  prison.  It’s  a  time 
when  some  kind  of 
‘message’  would  be  deeply 
(in  the  tummy,  honey!)  ap- 
preciated...  


Amnesty  International  & 
“man-boy  lover” 

Al  is  looking  for  information 
on  cases  related  to  gays  en¬ 
trapped  while  engaging  in 
consensual  sex  with 
teenagers.  Write  Peter  Wing- 
quist,  A.I.,  PO  Box  17218, 
Stockholm,  Sweden  [Postage 
is  44c  per  HALF  (!)  ounce] 

NAMBLA  (North  American  Man-Boy 
Love  Association)  —  Bulletins  FREE 
to  persons  imprisoned  for  sex  with 
‘minors’.  Contact  Rock  Thatcher,  781 
W.  Oakland  Pk.Boul.Z/615,  Ft.  Lauder- 
dale,  FL  33311. 


ANARCHISTS!  Vulture  3  is  now 
available!  Paradoxical,  political  and 
prisoner  positive!  Be  the  first  on  your 
block!  R.Yves  Breton,  CP  95  Stn  Place 
D’Armes,  Montreal  PQ  H2Y  3E9. 
[Postage  is  22  cents] 


HAY,  TEXAS  PRISONERS 

!)! 

If  you  can  get  it  on  your  radio, 
LISTEN  to  the  ‘‘Ray  Hill  Prison 
Show”,  Sundays  3-5pm  KPFT-FM 
90.1,  for  criminal  ‘justice’  news 
(local  and  national),  interviews, 
useful  information  and  legal  help, 
and  a  call-in  hour  (4-5)  to  let  friends 
and  relatives  of  prisoners  call  the 
station  and  give  messages  to  people 
inside. (This  part  of  the  program  can 
cause  you  to  shed  a  few  tears  but 
also  put  a  smile  on  your  face . )To 
write  Ray  Hill,  send  mail  to  KPFT, 
419  Lovett  Blvd,  Houston  TX 
77006.  (713)526-4000. 


Prison  ARTISTS! 

Send  samples  of  your  work  and 
terms  for  selling  it  to:  Hugh  B. 
Callaway,  6424  Central  City 
Blvd. #421,  Galveston  TX 
77551(Hugh  is  an  ex-con  who  used 
to  get  GCN  when  he  was  inside) 


Prisoners 
Seeking 
Friends 


ro  ALL  THOSE  WHO  IN  AND  OUT  Ol 
’NISON  FIQHT  AGAINST  THEIR  BONDAGI 
Alexander  Baft  man,  Prison  Memoir*  of  ar 

GAY  PRISONERS  & 
‘PROTECTIVE  CUSTODY’ 
Legal  issues  &  cases  around  how 
to  get  in  and  out  of  PC  and 
other  ISOLATION  situations: 
write  to  GCN  for  ‘Prisons 
Within  Prisons’  and  we’ll  send  it 
to  you.  (FREE!)  (smile) 


PAROLE  HELP! 
Contact  Referral  Center 
assists  prisoners  in  prepar¬ 
ing  for  release.  Takes  3-4 
months:  costs  $5.  Contact 
Center  Inc.,  Box  81826,  Lin- 
coin  NE  68501.  (good  luck!) 


FREE  1987  Calendar!!! 

I A  fabulous  weekly  calendar 
1  book  with  stills  from  great 
I  movies  that  have  some  sense  of 
[the  different  kinds  of  struggles 
I  we  all  are  going  thru.  FREE  to, 
(prisoners  from  the  War 
|  Resisters  League,  339  Lafayette 
St.,  NYC  10012 


PLEASE  SHARE!!!!!! 

We  are  getting  a  LOT  of  re¬ 
quests  for  free  subs  from  some 
places  which  keeps  us  from  be¬ 
ing  able  to  spread  ourselves 
around!  We  will  stop  sending 
new  subs  to  Lucasville,  Lansing, 
Walla  Walla,  and  Salem  (OR) 
so  we  can  send  some  to  some 
new  places.  We  can’t  afford  to 
send  them  to  everybody  who 
asks  and  we’d  like  to  spread  the 
news  around.  If  you  can  share 
and  free  up  a  sub,  please  let  us 
know.  THANKS! 


NEED  A  FRIEND?  You're  not  alone.  Please 
write  this  address  for  help  with  parole  pro¬ 
grams,  legal  referrals  on  civil  liberty  cases, 
and  penpals.  Robbie  Morris.  Gay  Men’s  Parole 
Program,  1154  N.  Western  Ave.,  Hollywood 
CA  90029. 


San  Luis  Obispo  CA  93409. 


Looking  for  sincere  gay  man  to  cor 
respond  with.  Have  slight,  bul 
noticeable,  feminine  ways,  slender, 
love  to  read  novels,  the  outdoors,  and 
cooking.  Please  write.  Frank  WADE 
C-064304, 1150  SW  Allapattah  Rd-700 
Indiantown  FL  33456. 


I  dig  writing  sexual  letters.  I  « 
say  that  I’m  bisexual,  but  I’m  m 
sure.  I’m  new  to  man  on  man  love. 
Hoping  to  hear  from  someone.  Chad 
HILL,  84A  2643,  Box  51,  Comstoc 
12821. 


Black  Queen:  I  like  reading,  music 
and  cooking,  but  nothing  is  more 
satisfying  than  pleasing  my  “man”. 
Kerry  GUY,  208589,  Box  B,  Anar 
IA  52205 


I  pitch  and  catch,  love  to  give  around 


and  get  some  hot  porno  novels!  Ken 
A.  LARSON,  287350,  Box  520  (ME 
3A1)  Walla  Walla  WA  99362 


COMING  OUT! 

What  kind  of  support  is  available? 
What’s  needed?  How  to  start  getting 
it?  What  could  prisoners  be  doing 
(inside  organizing  and  after  they’re 
out!)?  Ideas? 

Send  Mike  your  feelings  and 
thoughts  on  everything  here  from 
jobs  to  friendship  to  changes  in  peo¬ 
ple’s  attitudes  toward  ‘ex-cons’  etc. 
etc.  I’ll  try  to  put  them  all  together 
and  make  a  story  out  of  them. 

Thanks. 


Lonely  prisoner  in  tor  a  crime  I  was  forced  to  I 
commit.  I’d  like  to  make  a  friend  on  the  out¬ 
side  Hoping  also  to  get  some  help  in  dealing  I 
with  my  case.  SASE  please  (I  only  get  $3  a 
month.)  Susan  A.  COOPER.  16065.  1479  Col- 


30  yr  old  gay  female.  1  like  cooking,  poetry.  1; 

sewing  and  music  Searching  tor  cor-  V 
respondence  from  sincere  and  open-minded  K 
people.  Thank  you.  Dishunda  HODGE.  1 

A 1 60 1 30  Box  148.  P0  Box  8540.  Pembroke  fl 
Pines  FL  33024. 

32  yr  old  GF  with  6  months  to  serve  looking  for  fl 

a  friend.  I  have  Been  burned  twice  by  women  B 
that  1  have  given  my  heart  to.  I’ve  always  fl 
thought  the  gay  community  was  something  1  fl 
could  turn  to  for  support.  I'm  beginning  to  lose  fl 
faith,  t  would  truly  love  to  communicate  with  I 
lesbians  who  are  real  and  caring.  1  cannot  Bj 
write  other  institutions.  Deborah  BAUMGART-  1 
NER.  04925-018.  Box  C-26.  Alderson  WV  1 

24910.  r  J 

■  My  hobbies  are  cooking,  fishing,  B 

■  traveling  and  outdoor  life.  1  would  like  fl 

■  to  subscribe  and  be  put  on  your  pen-  fl 
iHpal  list.  Please  write  soon.  Jacqueline  fl 

■  POPE,  AF02438  —  2,  PO  Box  8540  B 

■  box  2.  Pembroke  Pines.  FL  33024  | 

\mm\ 

1  ty.  looking  lor  anyone  in  the  tree'  world  who  I 
has  the  wherewithal  to  enter  into  a  cor-  1 
respondence  ot  substance,  and  any  of  my  1 
1  ‘sisters'  in  prison  (tho'  to  the  latter  1  warn:  1 
1  I’m  a  renegade.  Don't  write  unless  you're  1 
1  prepared  to  hear  the  gospel  ot  1 
1  ’independence  )  Mason  “Vanna"  VANDIVER.  1 
■  35361.  Box  900.  Jefferson  City  MO  65102 

1  KENNETH  SHERRY,  has  been  moved  to  1 
■  another  joint.  His  new  address  is:  6319.  Box  1 
1  473.  Westville  IN  46391. 

1  I'm  the  only  one  who  gets  GCN  on  this  tier  and  1 
1  1  SHARE!  so  please  don't  cut  oft  my  sub  ■ 
JB  [because  Salem  is  one  ol  the  places  listed  as  B 
1  having  a  large  number  ol  tree  subs  going  in]  I 
B  I'm  addicted!!  I’ve  written  to  several  prisoners  1 
1  from  the  penpal  column  and  it's  helped  me  get  B 
1  some  legal  help  Irom  the  ACLU.  and  1  love  to  B 
1  send  and  receive  mail.  It  helps  make  my  time  B 
=■  easier.  It's  ok  to  write  other  prisoners,  and  I 
I'm  open  to  writing  males,  females  or  anyone  B 

■  in  between.  Rick  BIRD.  42582.  2605  Slate  St.  B 

■  Salem  OR  97310. 

■  Bi-male,  33.  wishes  to  write  to  other  people, 
^fl  either  sex  and  any  age.  I'm  looking  for  triends 
and  will  go  with  the  flow.  1  enjoy  people  with  a 

1  sense  of  humor.  I'm  a  good  listener  and  a 

1  prompt  writer.  Stephen  SIMMONS.  86A  3979, 

1  (5-2-12).  Box  367,  Dannemora  NY  12929 

1  1  desperately  need  help  putting  together  a 

1  parole  plan  (place  to  work,  live,  etc).  I'm  23, 

1  in  for  a  non-violent  crime  and  would  appreciate 
■  any  penpals  or  helpful  information  (or  both!) 

1  Paul  WEBB,  138172,  State  Farm  VA  23160 

■  Slim,  fern,  freckles,  red  hair  and  brown  eyes, 

1  seeking  hung  black  male  friends.  Photo  with 
■  letter  gets  fast  reply  SASE  please  Marion 

1  Chiya  MARTINEZ.  P0  Box  600  -  45123. 

1  Canon  City  CO  81212 

B  Bi-male.  28.  lovable,  kind  Hobbies  include 

■  swimming,  lifting  weights,  good  times  and 

■  writing  poems.  Would  love  to  hear  from  good 

1  people.  Michael  WILLIAMS,  422740  Clemens. 

1  Rt  1  Box  1077,  Brazoria  TX  77422 

fl  Gay  male  (mostly),  Teri  Is  the  name.  1  don't 

■  write  too  pretty  but  I’m  honest  and  I  enjoy  get- 

■  ting  letters  too  (!)  Billy  '  Theresa/Teri" 

1  GRISEL,  41220  D-201,  2605  State  St,  Salem 

■  OR  97310. 

■  Gay  man.  well-defined  physically,  wishes  to 
fl  correspond  with  free  world  people  as  well  as 

■  those  incarcerated  My  hobbies  are  reading, 

■  writing,  sports,  the  outdoors  and  longlasting 

■  relationships.  1  don't  indulge  in  mind  games 
fl  nor  do  1  appreciate  those  who  do.  William 

■  BRUMBLEY.  EF- 1  13285  (MI-19/1). 

■  Reidsville  GA  30499. 

I  My  hobbies  are  cooking,  traveling  and  making 

■  love  and  writing  so  somebody  please  write. 

■  Larry  WILLIAMS,  626876,  Box  520  (1A-21  5 
■  winq),  Walla  Walla  WA  99362. 

1  1  came  out  (as  you  can  see)  and  nobody 

1  understands  being  gay  so  I  need  some  friends 

■  to  talk  to  and  build  my  gay  self  up.  I’m  19,  In 
fl  good  health,  and  would  love  to  hear  from 
fl  somebody  1  can  express  my  feelings  to.  Gene 

■  HUGHES,  138183,  Box  97,  McAlester  OK 

1  74501 

fl  1  just  read  one  of  your  newspapers.  It  was 

1  very  Interesting  and  educational!  1  would  like 

1  to  get  some  letters  from  intelligent  folks  out 

1  there.  Peace.  Johnny  PETERS0N-EL. 

1  30001-138,  Marion  IL  62959 

1  Ex-dancer  from  Dallas  with  a  desire  to  become 

1  a  hair-stylist  would  love  to  hear  from  you!  Still 

1  waiting  for  the  right  guy1  Please  write  soon 

1  Ronny  MEDFORD.  412062,  Rt  6  Ellis  2.  Hunt- 
■  sville  TX  77340 

fl  Gay  man,  32,  slim  build,  fairly  neat  and  clean 

1  but  not  perfect  (and  don  t  expect  anyone  to  be 
1  either)  Not  into  heavy  drug  scene  or  alcohol 

1  either,  love  dancing  and  country  or  mid-50s 
fl  music  l  really  appreciate  the  GCN  giving  us  a 

B  voice  Thanks!  Danny  C.  BETTIN,  46876. 

■  2605  State  St.  Salem  OR  97310 

fl  I'm  43  and  love  camping,  photography,  all 

fl  sports,  oral  and  anal  sex  (without  hurting  peo- 

■  pie).  Love  to  make  music  too.  Looking  for 

■  someone  who  could  share  some  kindness 

H  (especially  from  my  hometown  of  Toledo  ) 

1  Harry  FOX.  287195  A  2-3).  Box  777.  Monroe 
|  WA  98272 

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